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Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS)

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) collects detailed micro-data on the distribution of households’ asset portfolios and financial liabilities and their consumption decisions in all euro area countries. It is the most comprehensive survey on this topic in Europe.

The HFCS is the first survey in Slovakia that allows the analysis of the entire household balance sheet in line with international standards. It also collects related economic and demographic data (e.g. household income, intergenerational transfers, selected categories of consumption and credit constraints, age, education and employment status of respondents) that shed light on other aspects of households’ financial decisions.

The HFCS project was set up by the European Central Bank in close cooperation with other euro area central banks. The survey has been conducted in euro area countries and some other European Union countries (Czech Republic, Hungary) at roughly three-yearly intervals since 2010, using a harmonised methodology.

In Slovakia, the HFCS has been conducted in four waves, in 2010, 2014, 2017 and 2021. It is administered by the National Bank of Slovakia and the fieldwork is carried out by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. The fifth survey wave was carried out in autumn/winter 2023 (information here), the results will be available in 2025.

Reports and statistics

  • HFCS Workshop 2024

    The NBS organizes a practical workshop between April 24 – 26, 2024 with a focus on the utilization of the HFCS data. The workshop is targeted at students, researchers, and analysts with a keen interest in exploring the economic and financial dynamics of household wealth, assets, and liabilities. See the attached invite for details. If you are interested in participating, please complete the application form.

  • Information and Access to HFCS Data

    The NBS provides researchers and academics with access to the anonymised HFCS database for statistical processing and non-commercial empirical research.

  • Content of the Questionnaire

    The questionnaire consists of two main parts:

    1. Questions on the household as a whole: real assets and their financing, other liabilities, credit constraints, private business, financial assets, intergenerational transfers and gifts, consumption and savings.
    2. Questions on individual household members: demographics (for all household members), employment, future pension entitlements and income (for household members aged 16 and over).

    The data collected in each participating country are the so-called core variables. The set of non-core variables includes data for which countries are free to decide which of them to collect.

    The Slovak questionnaire contains some additional questions that are not included in the common questionnaire template. These are, for example, questions on financial literacy or on a specific module on a selected topic (e.g. the impact of Covid). For further details, please contact hfcs@nbs.sk.

  • Information on the Methodology – Important for Users

    Working with the HFCS database is quite complex and requires adequate knowledge of data processing, statistics and econometrics, as well as survey methodology. A detailed description of the questionnaire and important aspects of the survey, such as the sampling design, weighting, data editing and techniques used for multiple imputation of missing responses, variance estimation using replication-based methods, data comparability issues, definitions and other details, can be found in the ECB‘s HFCS methodological report for the 2021 wave.

  • How to Request Data

    We provide HFCS data to interested parties for the sole purpose of non-commercial scientific research and analysis at the household level. If you require HFCS data at the level of individuals, please indicate this in the application along with the project proposal. Requests for these data will be considered separately. Please read the HFCS methodological report for the 2021 wave before applying for data.

    You can request Slovak data using the form below:

    Request for HFCS data

    HFCS datasets for all participating countries can be requested using the European Central Bank form:

    Access to the HFCS data

Selected Outputs Related to Slovakia

The interviews for the fifth wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) took place in Slovakia in autumn/winter 2023.

  • Selection of Households

    The sampling unit for the survey is a dwelling. Dwellings are selected using a two-stage randomised sampling. All regions are included in the selection so that the whole territory of Slovakia is covered. The sampling design, based on statistical methods, ensures that despite the small number of participating households, the results reflect the financial and consumption patterns of all households in Slovakia. The results of the survey are therefore representative at both national and regional level. The survey unit is the household, which consists of the persons usually living in the selected dwelling. Further information on participation in the HFCS is provided in an information leaflet sent to all selected households.

  • Contacting Households

    Households that are selected in the random sample for the HFCS will receive an invitation letter together with an information leaflet. The selected households are then contacted by an official interviewer from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, which is commissioned by the National Bank of Slovakia to conduct the survey. In case of further questions, please call the regional telephone number of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, indicated in the invitation letter. The HFCS team at the NBS can be contacted by email at hfcs@nbs.sk.

  • How Can I Verify If the Survey Is Serious?
    • If your household is selected for the survey, you will receive an invitation letter signed by the Executive Director of the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) and the President of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.
    • To check whether your household is on the list of those selected for the survey, please call the regional telephone number of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, which is given in the invitation letter.
    • The HFCS team at the NBS can be contacted by email at hfcs@nbs.sk.
    • More information on the NBS can be found at www.nbs.sk, and information on the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic at www.statistics.sk.
  • Data Privacy and Data Security

    We ensure that household responses are processed anonymously. The data will be treated as sensitive data (in accordance with Act No. 18/2018 Coll. on the Protection of Personal Data, as well as the European General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR) and will be used exclusively for statistical and research purposes.

  • Information Leaflet
  • Contact
    Piktogram obálky

    hfcs@nbs.sk