Identifiers

Household and person level files within a wave can be merged by using _hhrhid (i.e., ahhrhid for wave 1, bhhrhid for wave 2, etc).⁴ Note that where we use the underscore ‘_’ in the variable name, you will need to replace it with the appropriate letter for the wave, ‘a’ for wave 1, ‘b’ for wave 2, etc. Enumerated and responding person files within a wave can be merged by using the cross-wave identifier _xwaveid or the specific person identifier _hhrpid. In wave 1, the first six characters of the person identifier is the household identifier and the last two characters of the person identifier is the person number within the household. In wave 2 onwards, the first five characters are the household identifier and the next two are the person number.

Information from enumerated or responding person files can be linked across waves by using either:

• the cross-wave identifier xwaveid; or
• the master file which shows the identifiers for each person each wave.

Partners within the household are identified by their cross-wave identifier (_hhpxid) or by their two digit person number for the household (_hhprtrid). These variables are provided on both the enumerated and responding person files and are derived using the HF relationship grid. Partners are either married or de-facto and include same sex couples. _hhprtid is the person number for the household (for example, if person 02’s partner is person 05, the partner identifier for person 02 will contain ‘05’ and for person 05 it will contain ‘02’). You will need to concatenate the household identifier with the partner identifier before you can match on partner characteristics to the person file. Using the partner’s cross-wave identifier (_hhpxid) will be much easier.

Parents within the household are similarly identified in _hhfxid and _hhmxid (father’s and mother’s crosswave identifiers) or _hhfid (father’s person number) and _hhmid (mother’s person number). A parent may be natural, adopted, step or foster (a parent’s de facto partner also counts as a parent).

Note that while xwaveid is the unique identifier to match each person across all waves, _hhrhid and _hhrpid are specific identifiers to match each person within a wave. As _hhrhid and _hhrpid are randomly assigned each wave, the same person will have a different _hhrhid and _hhrpid from wave to wave. Persons in the same household in each wave will share the same _hhrhid and the same first 5 digits in _hhrpid (or the same first 6 digits in ahhrpid in the case of wave 1).

Listed below are some useful socio-demographic variables. These are provided to help new users get started with using the HILDA data.

Table 5: List of Useful Variables

Endnotes: