The Central Statistics Division conducted the Long Form Census (LFC) in 2022 and completed the fieldwork in 2023. The LFC combined two stand-alone data collection activities: the Population and Housing Census (PHC) and the Household Income and Expenditure Survey. As the name implies, the Tuvalu HIES 2022-23 report presents statistics on income and expenditure. CSD wishes to thank its partners, staff, and in particular, the households that participated in the interviews.
Income
The total annual household income in Tuvalu is estimated to be approximately AUD 50 million (an average of AUD 27,526 and a median of AUD 22,176). 73% of household income is cash-based, while 18% is coming from rent, 6% from gifts, and 3% from the consumption of home production.
Income is mainly sourced from employment-related activities, such as salaries and income from the sale of primary produce. Employment-related activities account for 71% of gross household income.
The distribution of household income is not even and there’s a certain degree of inequality ― in terms of total household income ― among different population groups of Tuvalu. 36% of household income in Tuvalu is accounted for by the population from the lowest expenditure quintiles (40% of the population).
Expenditure
Total annual household expenditure in Tuvalu is estimated to be approximately AUD 53 million (an average of AUD 29,383 and a median of AUD 24,428). 87% of household expenditure is consumption expenditure, with the remaining 13% being classified as transfers.
In terms of consumption source, 74% is cash-based (cash-purchased goods and services), 17% is rented (actual and imputed), 6% is gifts and 3% is own account production (home production for subsistence purposes).
Consumption expenditure is mainly dedicated to food and non-alcoholic beverages, which represent 34% of the total consumption expenditure. Housing accounts for 26% of total household expenditure, and Restaurants and hotels account for another 7%. The lowest share of total household expenditure was on education and health which represented 0.2% and 0.02% respectively.
The distribution of household expenditure is not even and there’s a degree of inequality ― in terms of total household expenditure ― among different population groups of Tuvalu. Around 53% of total household expenditure in Tuvalu is accounted for by 40% of the population.