The Bosnia and Herzegovina Household Survey Panel Series "Living in BiH" (LiBiH) provides individual level and household level socio-economic data from over 3,000 households drawn from urban and rural areas in the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The sample was designed to allow analyses of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, by entity, and by urban/rural locations.   The panel survey sample was drawn from the Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) conducted by the World Bank in co-operation with the Statistical Institutions (SIs) in 2001.  Approximately half the households interviewed on the LSMS were selected and carried forward into the panel survey.  These households were re-interviewed in September 2002 and 2003 and for a fourth time in November 2004.

 The survey was carried out by the Republika Srpska Institute for Statistics, the Federal Office of Statistics and Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in partnership with Birks Sinclair (BSAL), the Independent Bureau for Humanitarian Issues (IBHI) and the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) and with the financial assistance of the UK Department for International Development (DfID). The fourth wave of the survey was commissioned by Monitoring and Implementation Office of the Unit for Economic Policy Planning and Implementation of the BiH Medium Term Development Strategy (EPPU), as one of their activities for monitoring the BiH MTDS.

The information for the LiBiH survey was collected using one questionnaire.  The household questionnaire collects information at both the household and individual levels.   Information collected at the household level includes housing.   Information collected at the individual level includes demographics, education, health, employment, social protection, finances and credit, migration, and personal values and opinions.

The Household Survey Panel Series (HSPS - “Living in BiH”) allows annual measurement of change and will permit the aggregation of data for individuals across time to derive estimates of the impact of changes in a manner that cross sectional data cannot allow.

For the best use of the database, it is highly recommended that users read all of the documentation that is provided for using the data