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HILDA User Manual
Overview The HILDA Data Users How to Order the Data Security Requirements How the Data Files are Provided Structure of the Data Files Identifiers Matching Files Creating Longitudinal Files Variable Name Conventions Missing Value Conventions Data with Negative Values Confidentialisation Derived Variables Age and Sex History Spatial Current Education Current Marriage /Defacto Relationship Children Child Care Employment Calculating hourly wage rates Calendar Family Health Housing Time Use Household Expenditure Life – Personality Income and Income Imputation Wealth and Wealth Imputation Weights Documentation Data Quality Issues The HILDA Sample Data Collection Pilot Testing Questionnaire Length Interviewers Fieldwork Process Response Rates Attrition Bias Data Processing HILDA User Training Getting More Information References Appendices Summary of HILDA Survey content, waves 1 to 6 HILDA Survey Instrument Development and Sources Changes made to the data between releases Little and Su method About the HILDA User Manual HILDA Survey Home

Variable Name Conventions

Variable names have been limited to eight characters (so that the files can be read in older versions of SPSS and SAS). The variable name is divided into three parts and attempts to provide information on the content of the variables:

First character – wave identifier, with ‘a’ being used for wave 1, ‘b’ for wave 2, ‘c’ for wave 3, etc.
Second and third character – general subject area (see Table 6 (below) for the conventions).
Fourth to eighth character – specific subject of data item.

Excluding the first character, variable names are the same across waves if the question and response options are the same. If the question or response options have significantly changed, the variable name will also be modified. There are, however, a few variables were we have decided to vary from this convention:

Household response status;
Person response status;
SCQ in-field response flag;
Household membership; and
New location of mover.

For these variables, it was thought more important to keep the same variable names. These variables are used for survey administration purposes by the HILDA Survey team at the Melbourne Institute. Many users will not use the detail in these variables. Table 7 to Table 11 show how the response categories differ for these variables across the first six waves.

Table 6: Broad subject area naming conventions, characters 2 and 3 (sorted by code)

Code	Broad Subject Area	Code	Broad Subject Area	Code	Broad Subject Area
AL	Leave	HH	Household information, identifiers and cross-sectional weights	OP	Other property
AN	Ancestry			OR	Other relationships
AT	Attitudes and values			PA	Parenting
BA	Bank accounts	HI	Household income	PH	Private health insurance
BI	Business income	HS	Housing	PH	Private health insurance
BF	Business	HW	Household wealth	PJ	Previous job
BM	Body mass index	HX	Household expenditure	PI	Personal information
BN	Benefits	IC	Intentions to have children	PN	Personality
CA	Calendar	IC	Intentions to have children	PR	Partnering / relationships
CC	Childcare general	IO	Interviewer observations	PR	Partnering / relationships
CH	Childcare during school holidays	IP	Intentions and plans	PW	Personal wealth
CH	Childcare during school holidays	JB	Job characteristics of employed	RC	Resident children
CN	Non–employment related childcare	JB	Job characteristics of employed	RE	Religion
CN	Non–employment related childcare	JO	Opinions about job	RG	Relationship grid
CP	Childcare for children not yet at school	JS	Job search of those not employed	RP	Residential property
CP	Childcare for children not yet at school	JS	Job search of those not employed	RT	Retirement intentions
CR	Credit cards	LE	Major life events	RW	Replicate weight
CS	Childcare during school terms	LN	Longitudinal weights	SA	Superannuation
CS	Childcare during school terms	LO	Life opinions	TC	Total children
DB	Debt	LS	Lifestyle	TI	Total income
DO	Dwelling observations	MH	Moving house	TS	Time stamps
DT	Personal debt	MO	Mutual obligations	TX	Taxes
ED	Education	MR	Marital relationships	UJ	Job history of those not in paid employment
EH	Employment history	MV	Motor vehicles	UJ	Job history of those not in paid employment
ES	Employment status	NC	Non–resident children	WC	Workers compensation
FA	Financial assets	NL	Not in labour force	WS	Wages and salaries
FI	Attitudes to finances	NP	Non–employment related childcare for children not yet at school	XP	Expenditure
FM	Family background			YE	Youth – employment
GH	General health and well–being			YH	Youth – education
		NS	Non–employment related childcare for children at school	YI	Youth – importance
		NS	Non–employment related childcare for children at school	YI	Youth – importance
HB	Household bills	OA	Other assets	YP	Youth – property
HE	Health	OI	Other income	YS	Youth – life satisfaction
HG	Household enumeration grid	OI	Other income	YS	Youth – life satisfaction

Table 7: Variables with unchanged variable name and differing codes, response categories and codes compared

*Description* (applies to final _hhresp, initial _hhrespi¹, follow-up _hhrespf¹)	*Codes used*
	*Wave 1*	*Wave 2*	*Wave 3*	*Wave 4 onwards*
Full Response
Every eligible member of current HH interviewed	62	62	62	62
Part Response
Part refused	63	63	63	63
Part non–contact	64	64	64	64
Part contact made with all non–response	65	65	65	65
Part away for workload period	66	66	66	66
Part language problem	67	67	67	67
Part incapable/death/illness	68	68	68	68
Non–Response
Refusal	69
Refusal, PSMs still live there	N/A	69	69	69
Refusal, don’t know if PSMs still live there	N/A	70	70	70
Address occupied, no contact with a sample member	70	71	71	71
Contact made and all calls made	71	72	72	72
All residents away for workload period	72	73	73	73
HH does not speak English	73	74	74	74
HH incapable/illness	74	75	75	75
Refusal to Nielsen via 1800 number	75	76	76	76
Terminate (no PQs)	76	77	77	77
HH deceased	N/A	78	78	78
HH moved out of scope	N/A	79	79	79
All PSMs moved in with another PSM	N/A	80	80	80
All PSMs non respondents in last 2 waves	N/A	N/A	81	81
Untraceable	N/A	99	99	99^*
Not issued this wave	N/A	N/A	100	100
Deceased at previous wave	N/A	N/A	101	101
TSM no longer living with PSM at previous wave				102
Dwelling out of scope
Dwelling vacant for workload period	77	N/A	N/A	N/A
Non–private dwelling, place of business	78	N/A	N/A	N/A
Used for temporary accommodation only	79	N/A	N/A	N/A
Institution with no private HH usually resident	80	N/A	N/A	N/A
Not a main residence (eg holiday home)	81	N/A	N/A	N/A
All people in household out of scope	82	N/A	N/A	N/A
Derelict dwelling/demolished/to be demolished	83	N/A	N/A	N/A
Dwelling under construction/unliveable renovations	84	N/A	N/A	N/A
Listing error	85	N/A	N/A	N/A

1	_hhrespi and _hhrespf are only on the In–confidence Release (unconfidentialised) files. For initial response status _hhrespi, subtract 60 from all codes except 98 and 99. For followup response status _hhrespf, substract 30 from all codes except 98 and 99. Back to where you were
*	for _hhrespi only: Untraceable is coded 89 Back to where you were

Table 8: Unchanged variable name and differing codes for Persons Response Status

*Description* (applies to _fstatus, initial _hgri and _hgri1 to hgri14; follow-up_hgrf and hgrf1 to hgrf14; final_hgivw and _hgivw1 to _hgivw14¹)	*Codes used*
	*Wave 1*	*Wave 2*	*Wave 3 onwards*
Interview in person	1	1	1
Interviewed by telephone	2	2	2
Ineligible for interview
– Less than 15 years old at 30^th of June	3	3	3
– Overseas for more than 6 months		4	4
In prison		5	5
TSM no longer living with PSM	N/A	N/A	6
Not part of the household NFI	4
Refusal
Too busy	12	6	7
Too invasive	11	7	8
Other reasons	13	8	9
Refusal via 1800 number/email	14	9	10
Interview terminated	15	10	11
Other non&ndsash;interview
Deceased	N/A	11	12
Moved to another HF	N/A	12	13
Language problem	6	13	14
Incapable/illness/infirmity	5	14	15
Home but unable to contact	9	15	16
Away for workload period	8	16	17
Away at boarding school/university	7
Other reasons	10
Household non–contact	N/A	17	18
Household contact made no interviews	N/A	18	19
Household not issued to field – persistent non–respondent	N/A	N/A	20
Overseas permanently	N/A		21
Household all PSMs non–responding in last 2 waves	N/A	N/A	22
Permanently incapable from previous wave	N/A		23
Household out of scope NFI	N/A	19
Overseas and aged < 15	N/A	20	28
Untraceable from prior waves	N/A	N/A	29
Untraceable determined this wave	N/A	99	99

1	_hgri, _hgri1 to _hgri14, _hgrf and _hgrf1 to _hgrf14 are only on the In–confidence Release (unconfidentialised) files. Back to where you were

Table 9: Unchanged variable name and differing codes for SCQ Field Response Status

*Description* (applies to _hgsi, _hgsi1 to hgsi14, hgsf, hgsf1 to hgrf14, _hgscq, _hgscq1 to _hgscq14¹)	*Codes used*
	*Wave 1*	*Wave 2 onwards*
Picked up	1	1
To be sent	3	2
Refused	2	3
Not given	4	4

1	_hgsi, _hgsi1 to _hgsi14, _hgsf, and _hgsf1 to _hgsf14 are only on the In–confidence Release (unconfidentialised) files. Back to where you were

Table 10: Unchanged variable name and differing codes for Household Membership

*Description* (applies to _hghhm, _hghhm1 to hghhm14¹)	*Codes used*
	*Wave 1*	*Wave 2*	*Wave 3 onwards*
Listed
Resident	N/A	1	1
Absent for workload	N/A	2	2
No longer member of household	N/A	3	3
Deceased	N/A	4	4
Not listed
Re–joiner/merger	N/A		5
New resident	N/A	5	6
Absent for workload new resident	N/A	6	7

1	For _hghhm, the value labels are quite different, but the meaning of many of the codes are the same. Wave 3 labels are listed in this table. Back to where you were

Table 11: Unchanged variable name and differing codes for New Location of mover

*Description* (applies to _hgnlc1 to hgnlc14)	*Codes used*
*Description* (applies to _hgnlc1 to hgnlc14)	*Wave 1*	*Wave 2*	*Wave 3 onwards*
Overseas	N/A	1
Within Australia – new local address	N/A	2	1
Within Australia – new non–local address	N/A	3	2
Address unknown	N/A	4	3
Deceased	N/A	5	4
Overseas permanently	N/A		5
Overseas but not permanently	N/A		6

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HILDA User Manual