Problem of affluence: Low official survey response rate

New Delhi: The number of people averse to government surveys has doubled over the last five years, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said Friday.

Highlighting the lack of cooperation from high income households living in gated communities, it said that an ‘income category’-wise analysis of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) data showed that non-responsiveness in the ‘high income’ category of urban areas grew to 11% in HCES 2022–23 from 3.3% in 2011–12. The non-responsiveness among the high-income category in rural areas increased to 3.9% from 1.3% in the same time period.

A rising non-response rate has the potential to reduce the sample size of the government’s surveys and impact the accuracy of the official estimates.


The overall non-responsiveness in the HCES was 9.8% in cities from 2.8% in the 75th round of the National Sample Survey, conducted in 2017-18. It rose to 4.1% in villages from 1.5%.

“People have apprehensions about data anonymisation,” Saurabh Garg, MoSPI secretary at a Brainstorming Session
with stakeholders including housing societies and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, adding that the ministry was looking to assuage data privacy concerns.

Garg said that though privacy of data has often been cited as one of the reasons behind the public reluctance to participate in surveys, the ministry’s track record over the 70 years showed data it had collected was not used for any other purpose.

MoSPI also aims to enhance collaboration, build trust, and improve data accuracy and comprehensiveness by using Flexi-timing approach in data collection, shortening of questionnaire to minimise respondent fatigue and use of alternative mode of data capture such as email and web links.

Officials said that the ministry was aware of issues surrounding impersonation and working around them and that non-response is predominantly an urban phenomenon which is becoming more prevalent there than in rural areas.

“Survey sample in such localities had to be substituted as the survey officers were either unable to enter the complex or get people to provide them with information,”said an official.

Problems in getting entry into such societies and complexes, no response or lack of availability of such high income persons for responding to survey questions were the key challenges.