Study title

The "Level of Living" - concept in statistics/social research is originally a Swedish invention, but the modern Norwegian focus on this type of research and data collection dates back to a large-scale government initiated project from 1972. The first Level of Living Study in Norway was conducted in 1973, as a data collection project for a Government Commission studying the living conditions of Norwegian Citizens. The aim was to collect data on living conditions for different social groups, with particular emphasis on low-income groups and other groups that are assumed to live under special or problematic conditions. From 1980 onwards this became a regular data collecting activity run by Statistics Norway for statistical purposes, to monitor the living conditions of norwegians. The Level of Living Studies may be regarded as a continuation and developement of the statistical tradition behind consumer expenditure surveys and income- and property surveys. The Level of Living Study for Children in 1983 was carried out to collect better data on the situation for children. It also served as background data for a major project on childres living conditions initiated by the Norwegian Research Council's Centre for Child Research (Located at the University of Trondheim)