A 12-month long survey that covers 75 thousand housing units in 1,900 municipalities, POF is the most detailed study about consumer habits in Brazil. The survey provides information for the update of the Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA) basket of goods.

Today, June 26th, IBGE opens the Consumer Expenditure Survey (POF), 2017/2018 edition. It is the most encompassing investigation about the consumer habits of Brazilian families. Between June 2017 and May 2018, approximately one thousand data collection agents will visit more than 75 thousand housing units in about 1,900 municipalities all over the country, in order to update the consumer basket list and the weighting structure of the IPCA, Brazil’s official inflation index.

Because of its detailed display of the population’s living conditions, POF is a major source of information for academic studies and surveys of several companies and institutions, and it also helps monitor 10 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations Organization (UNO).

POF has been conducted since the 1970’s, under different formats, and detected the main changes in the consumer habits of Brazilians, among which we can mention: the growing importance of meals away from home, and more recently, the increase of digital consumption, related to the popularization of mobile telephony and of the Internet. POF was the first IBGE’s household survey to use electronic data collection devices to replace paper questionnaires. In the current edition, agents will make use of tablets to collect data.

2017/2018 edition will investigate food security

The sample of this current edition encompasses about 75 thousand housing units and surpasses the previous one (66 thousand housing units) in terms of size. Besides adopting an extended sample, POF now investigates the topic food security, which had been included in some previous volumes of the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD).

POF will no longer collect the anthropometric data, that is, the weight and height of residents at the housing units visited. In previous editions this type of information revealed the reduction of the weight deficit and the increase of obesity in the Brazilian population. This characteristic will now be investigated by the National Survey of Health (PNS), for the coming National Survey of Demography and Health (PNDS).

Although the results of POF 2017/2018 will only be known in 2019, the questionnaires have been adjusted in order to increase visibility of some consumer goods which might have become more common in Brazilian homes. That can be the case of on-demand TV shows, paid digital music services and applications and accessories for mobile telephones. Regarding non-digital information, there will be more detailed access to consumption related to pets, including items such as grooming services, animal feed, dog walkers, etc.  

Four decades of changes in the budget of Brazilian households

Between 1974 and 1975, the National Study of Household Expenditure (ENDEF) was the first IBGE survey to show details of how Brazilians spend their money. ENDEF used to follow internationally-acknowledged recommendations and receive support from the World Bank. The study was followed by different versions of POF, with distinct levels of geographic coverage. The editions of 2002/2003 and 2008/2009 adopted a sample design which gave access to information from all the Federation Units, as it is still observed nowadays.  

The weight of the main groups of consumption in the household budget has gone through significant changes since the 1970’s. The group Food products, for example, fell considerably between ENDEF 1974/75 (33.9%) and POF 2008/09 (19.8%). In the rural area, the participation of Food products was also reduced, with a decrease from 53.2% to 27.6%, respectively. In the same period, the weight of Housing increased from 30.4% to 35.9%. Its evolution in the rural area was more significant: from 17.8% (ENDEF 1974/75) to 30.6% (POF 2008/09).

Food away from home has gained importance in the household budget

POF 2008/09 evidenced another important change: families had been spending more on food away from home than in 2002/03, when this habit was first investigated. Between these two editions, the weight of expenditure with food away from home increased from 24.1% to 31.1%.

POF shows the level of schooling also affects consumer habits

Previous editions of the Consumer Expenditure Survey showed that the higher the level of schooling of the household reference persons, the biggest their average monthly expenditure. In 2008/09, in households where the reference person had less than one year of schooling, the average monthly figure was R$ 1.403.42. In those whose reference person had 11 or more years of schooling, expenditure was three times as big: R$ 4,314.92.