The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) released the latest results of the Household Budget Survey which is conducted every five years. The survey results reflect the consumption pattern and income distribution of households.
Number of households increased while household size dropped
The survey results indicated that there were 191,273 households in Macao in 2017/2018, an increase of 10,199 or 5.6% compared with 2012/2013. Analysed by type of dwellings, number of households living in economic housing (23,109) and social housing (12,637) rose by 22.4% and 96.2% respectively, as more households resided in the several new public housing estates in the past five years. The respective proportions of households living in these two types of dwellings grew by 1.7 percentage points and 3.0 percentage points to 12.1% and 6.6%. Meanwhile, number of households living in private housing edged down by 0.1% over 2012/2013 to 155,527, with their proportion in total households falling by 4.7 percentage points to 81.3%.
In terms of household size, the average household size inched down from 3.05 persons to 3.04 persons in 2017/2018, and that of private housing, economic housing and social housing was 3.11 persons, 2.96 persons and 2.24 persons respectively. Number of one-person and two-person households went up from 68,918 in 2012/2013 to 74,559, an increase of 8.2%. Moreover, number of elderly households (i.e. all household members aged 65 or above) surged by 65.8% to 18,223 owing to the impact of ageing population. Average employed persons per household decreased from 1.72 to 1.64.
Analysed by economic activity status of household members, there were 29,570 households with no members engaging in economic activities (e.g. retirees, students and homemakers), constituting 15.5% of the total, up by 4.1 percentage points from five years ago. This type of households had relatively small household size, with one-person and two-person households together accounting for 85.7% of the total.
Average consumption expenditure per household increased by 3.6% in real terms with “Housing & Fuels” being the major expenditure category
In 2017/2018, monthly consumption expenditure of all households in Macao amounted to MOP 6.79 billion, up by 28.5% from 2012/2013 in nominal terms or 9.4% in real terms after removing the effect of inflation. The average monthly consumption expenditure was MOP 35,488 per household, an increase of 3.6% in real terms.
Analysed by section of goods and services, “Housing & Fuels” and “Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages” together contributed 48.8% to the total consumption expenditure, down by 2.6 percentage points from five years ago. The share of “Housing & Fuels” rose by 1.2 percentage points to 26.9%, substituting “Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages” to become the largest category of consumption expenditure; meanwhile, the share of “Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages” dropped by 3.7 percentage points from 25.7% to 22.0%. As regards consumption pattern of households, monthly consumption expenditure outside Macao amounted to MOP 791 million, up by 61.0% in real terms compared with 2012/2013; spending in Zhuhai accounted for 44.1% of the consumption expenditure outside Macao, with an average monthly expenditure of MOP 1,821 per household. In addition, the monthly expenditure on online consumption totalled MOP 141 million (2.1% of total household consumption expenditure), an upsurge of 361.2% in real terms from five years ago.
Average income per household rose by 14.1% in real terms, higher than the increase in expenditure
Total monthly income of all households in Macao reached MOP 10.62 billion in 2017/2018, a rise of 20.5% in real terms. The average monthly income stood at MOP 55,497 per household and the monthly disposable income (total income less direct taxes, contributions to social security/provident funds, transfers made to non-household members, etc.) was MOP 52,314 per household, up by 14.1% and 12.7% in real terms respectively. Employment income was the primary source of household income, accounting for 72.4% of the total; monetary transfer receipts (including government welfare benefits and subsidies distributed in the form of cash or cash equivalents, such as handouts for the Wealth Partaking Scheme and healthcare vouchers) and property income (such as rental and interest receipts) occupied 14.1% and 13.5% respectively.
Analysed by type of dwellings, employment income accounted for 76.1% (a 5.5 percentage point growth from five years ago) of the income for households living in economic housing, while the corresponding share for households residing in private housing dropped by 1.3 percentage points to 72.5%. The proportion of employment income for households residing in social housing fell by 13.4 percentage points to 51.5%, whereas the share of monetary transfer receipts rose by 13.2 percentage points to 48.3%.
Compared to 2012/2013, the average monthly income of households increased by 14.1% in real terms, higher than the real growth in the average monthly household consumption expenditure (+3.6%). This resulted in a decrease of 6.5 percentage points in the share of household consumption expenditure to income, down from 70.4% to 63.9%.
Gini coefficient rose slightly by 0.01
Regarding the measure of household income distribution, the Gini coefficient of Macao was 0.36 in 2017/2018, up slightly from 0.35 recorded in 2012/2013. After excluding government welfare benefits and subsidies, the Gini coefficient increased from 0.38 five years ago to 0.40. Government welfare benefits and subsidies pushed down the value of Gini coefficient by 0.04 in 2017/2018, higher than 0.03 in 2012/2013, which implied that the government measures have prominent effect on improving the income distribution of households.
The increase in Gini coefficient was attributed to population ageing and smaller household size. These socio-demographic changes led to rising number of relatively low income households (e.g. elderly households, small scale households, households with fewer employed persons, etc.), which affected the equality in household income distribution and thus drove up the value of Gini coefficient.