The 2011 Congolese household survey

This readme describes the Congo Household Consumption Survey database for poverty assessment, which was used to analyze the effect of university education on poverty using data from the Republic of Congo. The Republic of Congo is a Central African state, a poor middle-income country. 1 Scope and presentation of the survey Scope of the investigation The survey is aimed at ordinary households, and the social field comprises all households, all categories combined, Congolese or African living like Congolese households. Geographically, the second Congolese Household Survey (ECOM 2) is a national operation that covers all twelve (12) departments in the country. 2 Survey Plan The survey was conducted using a stratified random sampling design, with two stages, with proportional allocation in the first stage. In the first stage, enumeration areas (EAs) were selected. In the second stage, a constant number of households were selected according to the place of residence. Sampling base The ECOM 2 survey base comes from mapping the fourth General Population and Housing Census (RGPH2007) of Congo. This base includes 4,122 ZD for 726,728 households, of which 445,816 are in urban areas and 280,912 in rural areas. Stratification of the survey field The cities of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire (treated as departments) and the 10 other departments are considered fields of study. In other words, the survey results must be significant at the level of the 12 departments. Furthermore, to compare the results with the 2005 ECOM, it seems important to make the survey results also significant at the level of the group consisting of the communes of Dolisie, Mossendjo, Nkayi, and Ouesso. Except for Kouilou, Brazzaville, and Pointe-Noire, each of the other nine departments was subdivided into urban and rural strata. However, only the rural stratum was covered in the Kouilou department. The departments of Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville were divided into urban strata. In total, the geographical scope of the survey was divided into 21 strata, including 11 urban and 10 rural. Concretely, apart from Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, the four other communes are part of the localities that represent the urban environment of their respective departments (Niari, Bouenza, and Sangha). On the other hand, in the other departments, the urban environment is represented either by the chief town of the department and/or other important agglomerations in terms of demographics and economy.