Bhutan Living Standards Survey 2012 Report

227 Pages·2013·5.9 MB·English

Bhutan Living Standards Survey 2012 Report
The Bhutan Living Standards Survey (BLSS) 2012 Report summarizes the results of the
household survey undertaken by the National Statistics Bureau with the Asian Development
Bank capacity development technical assistance Third Bhutan Living Standards Survey.
The report presents the analysis on the progress of Bhutan in improving their people’s lives
in terms of health, education, employment, income and expenditure, housing, access to
public facilities and services, social capital and also in terms of non-traditional measures,
such as self-rated poverty and happiness. The BLSS 2012, together with the BLSS 2007, is an
important tool for assessing the government’s 2008–2013 development plan. It will also be
an important input for the succeeding government plan.
Bhutan
About the National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan
Living Standards Survey
The National Statistics Bureau is the main statistical agency and custodian of official statistics
in the Royal Government of Bhutan. It aims to provide timely, relevant and reliable statistics
consistent with international principles and standards for effective decision making and
monitoring. It envisions to become a key provider of world class statistical information.
2012 Report
About the Asian Development Bank
ADB’s vision is an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing
member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. Despite
the region’s many successes, it remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor: 1.7 billion
people who live on less than $2 a day, with 828 million struggling on less than $1.25 a day.
ADB is committed to reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth, environmentally
sustainable growth, and regional integration.
Based in Manila, ADB is owned by 67 members, including 48 from the region. Its main
instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity
investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance.
National Statistics Bureau
Royal Government of Bhutan
PO Box No. 338 Thimphu, Bhutan
www.nsb.gov.bt
Asian Development Bank
6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City
1550 Metro Manila, Philippines
www.adb.org
A Joint Publication of
National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan and Asian Development Bank
Bhutan Living Standards Survey 2012 Report NSB
BAN-Country-Report-DER-Request.indd 81 12/18/12 11:42 AM
Bhutan
Living Standards Survey
2012 Report
A Joint Publication of
National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan and Asian Development Bank
© 2013 Asian Development Bank, National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan
All rights reserved. Published in 2013.
Printed in the Philippines and Bhutan.
ISBN 978-92-9254-025-8 (Print), ISBN 978-99936-28-20-0 (NSB), 978-92-9254-026-5 (PDF)
Publication Stock No. RPT135624 -2
Cataloging-In-Publication Data
Asian Development Bank and National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan
Bhutan Living Standards Survey 2012.
Mandaluyong City, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2013.
1. Living Standards Survey. 2. Bhutan. I. Asian Development Bank.
The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the
National Statistics Bureau (NSB), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the
governments they represent.
ADB and NSB do not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accept no responsibility
for any consequence of their use.
By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term
“country” in this document, ADB and NSB do not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of
any territory or area.
ADB and NSB encourage printing or copying information exclusively for personal and noncommercial use with
proper acknowledgment of ADB and NSB. Users are restricted from reselling, redistributing, or creating derivative
works for commercial purposes without the express, written consent of ADB and NSB.
National Statistics Bureau
Royal Government of Bhutan
PO Box No. 338 Thimphu, Bhutan
Tel [phone]
Fax [phone]
www.nsb.gov.bt
Asian Development Bank
6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City
1550 Metro Manila, Philippines
Tel [phone]
Fax [phone]
www.adb.org
iii
Contents
Foreword Asian Development Bank...................................................................................................................... v
Foreword Natonal Statstcs Bureau ................................................................................................................... vii
Executve Summary.............................................................................................................................................. ix
Chapter 1. Introducton ................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background .............................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Objectves................................................................................................................................................1
1.3 Survey Methodology and Sample Design ................................................................................................1
1.4 Survey Instruments .................................................................................................................................4
1.5 Reference Period .....................................................................................................................................4
1.6 Training of Supervisors and Enumerators................................................................................................5
1.7 Field Operatons ......................................................................................................................................5
1.8 Response Rates .......................................................................................................................................5
1.9 Data Processing and Analysis ..................................................................................................................5
Chapter 2. Demographic Characteristcs .......................................................................................................7
2.1 Household Compositon..........................................................................................................................7
2.2 Age Distributon ......................................................................................................................................8
2.3 Marital Status ..........................................................................................................................................9
Chapter 3. Educaton ..................................................................................................................................11
3.1 Literacy Status .......................................................................................................................................11
3.2 Educatonal Atainment.........................................................................................................................12
3.3 School Atendance ................................................................................................................................12
3.4 Educatonal Expenses ............................................................................................................................18
Chapter 4. Health .......................................................................................................................................19
4.1 Health Conditon ...................................................................................................................................19
4.2 Fertlity ..................................................................................................................................................23
4.3 Fertlity Rates ........................................................................................................................................25
4.4 Mortality ...............................................................................................................................................27

Chapter 5. Employment..............................................................................................................................29
5.1 Labor Actvity Status ..............................................................................................................................29
5.2 The Labor Force.....................................................................................................................................32
Chapter 6. Household Expenditure .............................................................................................................35
6.1 Food Consumpton Expenditure ............................................................................................................35
6.2 Nonfood Consumpton Expenditure......................................................................................................37
6.3 Total Consumpton Expenditure ............................................................................................................41
Chapter 7. Housing, Household Amenites, and Access to Services .............................................................47
7.1 Type of Dwelling and Tenure Status ......................................................................................................47
7.2 Housing Characteristcs .........................................................................................................................49
7.3 Access to Basic Utlites .........................................................................................................................51
7.4 Access to Other Services .......................................................................................................................53
iv Contents
Chapter 8. Assets, Credit, and Income ........................................................................................................57
8.1 Asset Ownership ...................................................................................................................................57
8.2 Credit Services .......................................................................................................................................60
8.3 Income ..................................................................................................................................................62
Chapter 9. Priorites and Opinions: Household Food Sufciency, Poverty, and Happiness ...........................69
9.1 Opinions: Priorites for Government Acton ..........................................................................................69
9.2 Food Sufciency in the Household........................................................................................................69
9.3 Happiness and Poverty ..........................................................................................................................70
9.4 Opinions: Most Important for the Household to be Happy ..................................................................72
Chapter 10. Social Capital...........................................................................................................................75
10.1 Brief Introducton to the Concept .........................................................................................................75
10.2 The Dimensions of Social Capital ..........................................................................................................75
10.3 Self-Rated Happiness, Poverty Percepton, and Social Capital ..............................................................89
10.4 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................91
Appendix 1. Concepts and Defnitons................................................................................................................93
Appendix 2. Comparison of BLSS 2003, BLSS 2007, and BLSS 2012 ....................................................................99
Appendix 3. Statstcal Tables............................................................................................................................111
Appendix 4. Questonnaire ...............................................................................................................................161
Appendix 5. Survey Organizaton......................................................................................................................201
v
Foreword
Bhutan’s economic performance and progress in achieving its millennium development goals (MDGs) targets
in recent years are quite impressive. However, Bhutan stll faces a number of critcal development issues – a
narrow economic base, high rural poverty and inequality, among others. The generaton of productve and
decent employment opportunites outside the government sector is needed to arrest youth unemployment.
Policies that would rapidly expand private sector actvity to boost job opportunites and broaden the country’s
economic base have to be crafed and implemented.
To formulate efectve policies, good data support systems are needed. Timely and reliable data and
informaton help us understand critcal issues, identfy vulnerable areas and at-risk groups, design interventons
and monitor programs and policies. The Bhutan Living Standards Survey (BLSS) is a good example of this data
support system. It has data on household demographic characteristcs, household assets and remitances,
educaton, employment, health, prices of commodites, and consumpton expenditures. These data are
inputs in the compilaton of natonal accounts of the household sector and in deriving an accurate social and
demographic profle of the populaton. BLSS is also a good source of data for policy research and for updatng
other economic indicators like the consumer price index. It can also be analyzed to provide updated poverty
estmates at the dzongkhag level and to assess the impact of large government projects like rural electrifcaton.
In general, at least two BLSS rounds can be utlized to gauge the efectveness of policies and programs that
have been designed and implemented to help improve the lives of the people. Specifcally, the 2007 and 2012
BLSS rounds are the major sources of indicators for assessing the government’s 2008–2013 fve-year plan.
In successfully completng the conduct and analysis of the BLSS 2012 that led to this Survey Report, the
Natonal Statstcs Bureau (NSB) has demonstrated its improved technical capacity and its potental in becoming
the leader of a modern natonal statstcal system that can provide strong support to evidence-based policy
making and monitoring.
We thank the Economics and Research Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for helping us
administer capacity development technical assistance 7886: Third Bhutan Living Standards Survey that provided
technical and funding support for BLSS. We also acknowledge the signifcant contributon of the BLSS Advisory
Commitee which is comprised of subject mater experts from the Gross Natonal Happiness Commission,
Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Ministry of Educaton, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour and Human
Resources, and the United Natons Data Theme Group in improving the survey instruments and reviewing this
report. We appreciate the assistance of the Department of External Relatons, ADB in the publicaton process.
It is our hope that this report will contribute to informed policy making and monitoring and for objectvely
assessing policies and programs in Bhutan. I am also hopeful that the ADB technical assistance that supported
this undertaking will pave the way for Bhutan to insttutonalize a sustainable system for regular objectve
data collecton, processing and analysis.
Juan Miranda
Director General
South Asia Department
Asian Development Bank
vii
Foreword
We are pleased to present the third Bhutan Living Standard Report (BLSS 2012). This report provides important
informaton about the living standard of the Bhutanese. Looking back over the past decade (the frst BLSS Report
of 2003), we have consistently aimed to cover a full range of informaton on social and economic policy issues,
and drawn the atenton of the government agencies, development partners, nongovernmental organizatons
and other stakeholders to the areas we have been progressing well and those where our atenton is needed.
The Royal Government of Bhutan is commited to integrate evidence into public policy decisions. Public
policies built on evidence are always considered beter for targetng purposes, increasing efciency, and ensuring
sustainability and accountability. Integratng evidence with public policies require reliable, up-to-date and
comparable socioeconomic data and the indicators that refect our social and economic objectves. This report
satsfes these needs, covering vital informaton on the demographics, educaton, health, employment, housing,
income, asset ownership, public facilites,access to services, credit, social capital, poverty, and happiness.
The report is the result of more than 3 months (March–May 2012) natonwide survey and analyses.
The study methodology is based on the World Bank’s Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS). The
LSMS module is adopted for cross-comparability and to generate the informaton that suits the purpose of
monitoring Millennium Development Goals and other regionally and internatonally agreed goals. However, a
few additonal questons have been included in the survey to collect data that ft our own context and address
our need. A new module on social capital has been included to identfy and measure the various dimensions
of social capital and its role in the poverty alleviaton and maximizing happiness. This new informaton makes
this report unique from the previous two BLSS reports.
While we antcipate many subsequent policy analyses and reports using the BLSS datasets, we hope this
report would show us the past successes and failures, shape the present, and point towards future directon of
our socioeconomic policies and programs. We hope this report will contribute to an efectve policy decisions
that could bring positve change in the lives of all the Bhutanese.
The Natonal Statstcs Bureau (NSB) would like to thank the Asian Development Bank for the fnancial
and technical support in conductng the survey and coming out with this report which will go a long way in
decision-making and development planning of the country. In fact, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has
been fully supportng the NSB, both fnancially and technically, since its initatve to carry out the frst ever
Household Income and Expenditure Survey in 2000 and then followed by the BLSS Report of 2003. The support
has not only helped in bridging vital data gaps but also helped build in-house capacity of the staf.
We hope that this report, which is a joint efort between the NSB and the ADB, will meet the expectatons
and the needs of all the data users.
Finally, we would like to thank the World Bank for the fnancial support to conduct the urban listng
which helped in updatng the urban sampling frame. We would also like to acknowledge all individuals from
the ADB and NSB, as well as those from other government agencies and organizatons who have helped us
in the conduct of the BLSS 2012 and in successfully bringing out this report.

Kuenga Tshering
Director General
Natonal Statstcs Bureau of Bhutan