‘How Many Rooms Are There in Your House?’: Constructing the Young Lives Wealth Index

This wealth index is the primary measure of socio-economic status of households within the Young Lives sample

Abstract

The Young Lives wealth index is intended to be the primary measure of socio-economic status of households within the Young Lives sample. This technical note outlines the construction of the wealth index. The construction draws on work undertaken by the World Bank and Macro International used to develop the wealth index cited in the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). The wealth index positions Young Lives households on a continuous scale of wealth, with higher values reflecting higher household wealth. It was introduced in the Young Lives Round 1 (2002) country reports to determine household poverty status.

Young Lives is an international study of childhood poverty, following the lives of 12,000 children in 4 countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam) over 15 years. Young Lives is funded by the UK Department for International Development

Citation

Briones, Kristine (2017) ‘How Many Rooms Are There in Your House?’: Constructing the Young Lives Wealth Index. Young Lives Technical Note 43. Oxford: Young Lives

‘How Many Rooms Are There in Your House?’: Constructing the Young Lives Wealth Index

Published 1 November 2017