Federale Overheidsdienst Economie, KMO, Middenstand en Energie, Statbel (Algemene Directie Statistiek / Statistics Belgium)

Service Public Fédéral Economie, PME, Classes moyennes et Energie, Statbel (Direction générale Statistique / Statistics Belgium)

Unit: Thematische Directie Samenleving
Direction thématique Société

Statbel

Directorate General Statistics - Statistics Belgium

North Gate II

Boulevard Roi Albert II 16

1000 Brussels

Belgium

The EU survey on the use of ICT in households and by individuals is an annual survey conducted since 2002. In Belgium, it has been conducted since 2005.

In 2022, the survey collects data on the access to information and communication technologies (ICT), on the use of the internet, e-government, e-commerce, internet of things, as well as green ICT.

National languages: Enquête naar het ICT-gebruik bij huishoudens en individuen / L’enquête sur l’utilisation des TIC auprès des ménages et des individus 

English: Survey among households and individuals on the use of ICT

The following common concepts and definitions apply under the Integrated European Social Statistics (IESS):

• the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011 published in the following breakdowns: low (ISCED levels 0-2: no formal education, primary education or lower secondary education), medium (ISCED levels 3-4: upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education) and high (ISCED levels 5-6: tertiary programmes which normally need a successful completion of ISCED 3 or 4, or second-stage tertiary education leading to an advanced research qualification);
• the International Standard Classification for Occupation ISCO-08 at the 2-digit level;
• the Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rev.2-2008), at section level;
• the Common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS 1) – finer granularity of NUTS 2 is provided on optional basis by some Member states;
• the SCL - Geographical code list;
• information about household income is provided at lower level

Additional classifications used in the national questionnaire: No deviations

The ICT survey in households and by individuals covers those households having at least one member in the age group 16 to 74 years old. Internet access of households refers to the percentage of households that have an internet access, so that anyone in the household could use the internet.

Collective households (residential care centers, prisons, ...) are excluded as well as households living in the German Speaking Community (+/- 0.7% of population)

The survey is collecting data of internet users, individuals who have used the internet in the three months prior to the survey. Regular internet users are individuals who used the internet, on average, at least once a week in the three months prior to the survey.

This annual survey is used to benchmark ICT-driven developments, both by following developments for core variables over time and by looking in greater depth at other aspects at a specific point in time. While the survey initially concentrated on access and connectivity issues, its scope has subsequently been extended to cover a variety of subjects (for example, the use of e-government and e-commerce) and socio-economic analysis (such as regional diversity, gender specificity, differences in age, education and the employment situation). The scope of the survey with respect to different technologies is also adapted so as to cover new product groups and means of delivering communication technologies to end-users.

For more details on the methodology applicable in each survey year, please consult the Methodological Manual for the respective year on CIRCABC - Methodological Manual - Information society statistics (europa.eu).

Deviations from standard ICT concepts: No deviations

Households and Individuals

In the ICT usage survey, the target population for the different statistical units is:

- individuals: all individuals aged 16 to 74;

- households: all (private) households with at least one member aged 16 to 74. 

Target population composed of households and/or individuals:

• Number of households:  4 585 000
  
• Number of individuals:  8 458 000

Non-compulsory age groups also included in the target population:

Households and individuals living in the German Community are excluded from the survey due to language issues; they comprise +/- 0.7% of the target population.

Year 2022

Not applicable

Percentages of ‘Households’ and Percentages of ‘Individuals’

First six months of the year

3 months before the survey, background variables are extracted from Labour Force Survey (LFS) held at the same time as ICT HH survey.

Survey runs from January to June (with reminders until August)

Due to COVID Statbel had to compensate for lower response rate and selected an extra batch of households of the LFS. Here there is a time gap between the background variables of LFS, referring to the last quarter of 2021 and the ICT variables, referring to the 2nd quarter of 2022. This will lead to minor errors in the main activity status variable. About 25% of the households are thus affected.

From 13 January 2022 to 22 August 2022.

The legal basis for the 2022 EU survey on the use of ICT in households and by individuals is the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples (OJ  L 261 I, 14.10.2019, p. 1), as implemented by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1223 of 27 July 2021 specifying the technical items of the data set, establishing the technical formats for transmission of information and specifying the detailed arrangements and content of the quality reports on the organisation of a sample survey in the use of information and communication technologies domain for reference year 2022 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 2269, 27.07.2021, pp. 1-45).

Complementary national legislation constituting the legal basis for the survey on the use of ICT in households and by individuals:  No complementary national legislation, the survey is not mandatory

Access to household coordinates is restricted to data collection unit.

Data processing units receive microdata that not allow identifying households and individuals.

Law of 4 July 1962 regarding official statistics and protection of data: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/change_lg.pl?language=fr&la=F&cn=1962070430&table_name=loi

Privacy policy explained at Statbel's web site: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/about-statbel/privacy/privacy-gdpr

The dissemination of pseudonymised study data is strictly regulated. The procedure is described on Stabel's website: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/microdata-research.

In order to get the permission of Statbel's Data Protection Officer team and finally as data controller, Statbel's director-general, the third party should follow a procedure and sufficiently motivate the proportionality and relevance of its request. The more confidential the information requested, the better the need for it should be motivated.

The release calendar is publicly available under expected figures 

Release calendar 2022

Data of ICTHH 2022 were released on 28 November 2022.

Press release at same time as publication of aggregated data on website: ICT usage in households

All data are accessible to all users at the same time.

Annual

News release took place on 28th of November 2022: 63% of Belgians aged between 16 and 74 have made online purchases

Look under figures. Static excel tables as well as dynamic tables are available.

Dynamic tables are accessible at ict-usage-households#figures

3705 consultations (2022)

It is possible to obtain microdata (for non commercial purposes) after approval of a confidentiality contract: microdata

Ad hoc applications for aggregated data are processed, all data are free to users (unless an exceptional amount of time is needed to prepare the data).

255 consultations (2022)

Further metadata is available in pdf format at ict-usage-households#documents

Information not available.

Quality indicators are calculated for all statistics on a yearly basis. Overview of the most recent quality assessment in annex.

Quality assessment is annually performed as mentioned under concept 10.7. Before publication all data are examined by the validation unit.

This includes checks on internal coherence of results and comparison with last year results and publication of similar data by other institutes.

Relevance: medium high, 2 stakeholders receive microdata, +/- 35 ad hoc demands for detailed information per year.

Accuracy: medium, standard error +/- 0.5% for total figures, figures for multiple breakdowns offer only rough estimates.

Timeliness: high, data are available to public by November of reference year, ahead of most statistics.

Punctuality: high, data delivery within deadline set by Eurostat.

Comparability: high, time series deliver plausible trends, figures are mostly within the range of the figures of neighbouring countries.

Coherence: no other (high quality) data source available.

The regional statistical offices Statistics Flanders, Statistics Wallonia and Statistics Brussels publish regional figures; the Ministry of Economy publishes a barometer of digital society and the Foundation Roi Baudoin publishes a barometer of digital inclusion (in cooperation with university UCL).

User satisfaction is not systematically measured.

Two options of optional variable 'F2: When you most recently bought a mobile or smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, which of the following characteristics did you consider' are missing: 'energy efficiency of the device' and 'have not considered any of the mentioned characteristics'.

98.6%

Random error due to sample size. 

Non response bias is compensated/eliminated by recalibrating weights, a residual bias is possible.

The sampling error reflects the fact that only a particular sample was surveyed rather than the entire population. It is estimated by the standard error and can be expressed by the square root of the estimate of the sampling variance. 

It is estimated with the Taylor linearisation method using the Poulpe tool.

The effects of unit non-response and calibration have been taken into account when calculating the standard eroor.

Precision estimates for the question "Individuals having ordered goods or services for private use over the internet in the last 12 months" (individuals who ticked 'Within the last 3 months' or 'Between 3 months and a year ago' in question D1 of the 2022 model questionnaire):

Number of respondents (absolute value for ‘Yes’ answers):   4 037

Estimated proportion (in %):  74.8

Standard error (in percentage points):   0.65

Details of the breakdowns are available in the Annexes below. 

See more details on non-sampling error below.

Source of the frame is National register of inhabitants of Belgium.

Frame is photo of register taken about a month before the start of the survey period.

Undercoverage due to illegal inhabitants but hard to quantify or assess the bias.

Further undercoverage due to exclusion of inhabitants of German speaking community (+/- 0.7% of total population), resulting bias should be negligible.

Over-coverage should be very low. Apart from errors in the register (hard to quantify) there are cases of people age 16-74 at the time of establishing the frame that have turned 75 at the time of completing the survey.

This leads to an over-coverage of +/- 0.3%.

Not requested in the ICT survey.

1)       Measurement errors:  

Unknown measurement errors; of course people can deliberately report false values but these errors are hard to detect or quantify.

2)       Questionnaire design and testing:  

The questionnaire is controlled for routing and other errors by a test panel before launching the survey.

3)       Interviewer training:  

Not applicable, as there are no interviewers involved in the survey.

4)       Proxy interview rates:  (+/- 5% of respondents appear not to be the individuals intially selected for the survey)

Information about non-respondents: 

Non-response is significantly higher among young people and individuals with a non-Belgian citizenship.

The unit response rate is the ratio of the number of in-scope respondents (= the number of achieved interviews or the net sample size to the number of eligible elements selected from the sampling frame).

Unit non-response rate for

• Households:   70.7%
  
• Individuals (aged 16-74):   70.7%
  

 Comments, if any:

1)       Methods used for dealing with unit non-response:  

ICT survey is linked to LFS, interviewer of LFS survey explains an invitation for ICT survey is following; a valid ICT survey is remunerated to motivate the interviewer; up to 2 postal reminders are sent 

2)       Methods used for minimizing unit non-response:  

Data are calibrated; weights are adapted in order to attain a random sample, background variables (household composition, geographical area, age group, ..) are used to calculate the calibration weights.

3)       Substitution permitted:  Not applicable, no interviewer involved.

4)       Substitution rate (in %):  ( +/- 5% of respondents do not correspond to the individuals initially selected for the survey)

Items with low response rates (observed rates in %):  

No variables with item non response > 10%

Non response for household income = +/- 2 %

None.

Not requested for ICT Survey

Press release and dissemination of results was scheduled on 28 November 2022.

20 days.

20 days (100%).

The statistics is comparable for all Belgian geographical areas, with the exception of the German-speaking Community. This area is excluded from the survey for practical reasons but only comprizes 0.7% of the Belgian population.

Not relevant

Possible limitations in the use of data for comparisons over time:  

There have been no major changes in methodology or survey set-up that would impact the comparability over time considerably.

The length of comparable time series depends on the module and variable considered within each of the modules of the survey.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

All statistics are coherent within the dataset.

MANDATORY questions in the Eurostat model questionnaire 2022:

All mandatory questions are included in the survey.

For the list of these questions, see the file in the Annexes 'sampling errors, mandatory and optional questions'.

Adoption of OPTIONAL questions and items in the Eurostat model questionnaire 2022:

All optional questions are included in the survey with the exception of 2 options in question F2:

'When you most recently bought a mobile or smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, which of the following characteristics did you consider important? '

For a list of these questions, see the file 'sampling errors, mandatory and optional questions' in the Annexes.

Additional questions introduced in the national questionnaire:

• reasons for not having access to internet at home;
• number of devices by type used in the household;
• type of device used by individual;
• use of free public internet (hotspots);
• frequency and amount of ordering online;
• attitude towards digital life

Effects of deviations from the routing used in the Eurostat model questionnaire:  

None. All statistics are coherent within the dataset.

The general provision policy of Statistics Belgium: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/about-statbel/quality/revision-policy

Ad hoc revisions occur when detecting errors deemed considerably affecting the figures. No revisions so far.

Not relevant

The source of the raw data is described with more details in the paragraphs below.

The sample is a subsample of the sample of the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is a household sample survey which provides quarterly results on labour participation of people aged fifteen years and over, as well as on persons outside the labour force.

To construct the LFS household frame the ‘Belgisch Rijksregister’ (Belgian National Register) is used, a database with population data for each resident of Belgium, regardless of the nationality.  This register also includes for each resident of Belgium household characteristics, as well as geographical information (the region (NUTS 1 level), province (NUTS 2 level), arrondissement (NUTS 3 level), municipality, address, …), but also the sex, the date of birth, …

The LFS household frame population consists of the non-collective households with at least one member aged 15 to 77 years. The exclusion of residents in collective housing (care homes, prisons, monasteries …) reduces the sample size with +/- 0.5%.

On the other hand, Statbel's gross sample households for the survey on ICT usage in households consists of the responding LFS sample households selected for the first or second quarter of the concerning survey year (households with at least one member aged 16 to 74 years).

The survey is voluntary.

Simple random sampling in two stages. In the first stage statistical sectors (small geographical areas) are selected, the second stage selects the households.

One person, aged 16 to 74, is selected at random per household.

There is no longitudinal component, this year's sampling is independent form last year's.

Annual

1) Methods used to gather data: 

CAWI and PAPI.

2) Short description of the survey method: 

Self-administered web survey (CAWI) or self-administered mail survey (PAPI): in 2022, 70.7% CAWI and 29.3% PAPI.

3) Variables completed from an external source: 

All background variables, except for household income, are derived from the Labour Force Survey (sex and age indirectly from National Register).

All data are subject to internal validation team before publication and dissemination.

The criteria for validation are (among others):

• no inconsistencies between subdata;
• plausible evolution compared with last year data;
• plausible data compared with other EU countries.

Imputation is limited to 2 variables and for these the imputation rate is 2 to 3%. The impact on the results is minimal

For the target indicator "Individuals having ordered goods or services for private use over the internet in the last 12 months" (individuals who ticked 'Within the last 3 months' or 'Between 3 months and a year ago' in question D1 of the 2022 model questionnaire):

Imputation rate (% of observations): 0%

Imputation rate (share of estimate): 0%

Methods used to impute item non-response: None.

Grossing up procedures have been applied to: Individuals 

Description of the weighting procedures: 

Calibration with margins (made with the software CALMAR), at individual level with truncated linear method. The model is:  

Region * (Sex + Age + Belgian + Household size) + Income + Education level

with the 3 Belgian regions, 6 levels of age (<24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, >64), a Boolean variable of Belgian nationality, 5 quantiles of income and the size of the household (max 5).

Not relevant

Not relevant