Survey objectives

Conducted annually since 2005, the objective of the ICT Households survey is to map ICT access in urban and rural households in Brazil and how it is used by individuals 10 years old or older.

Areas of investigation

The ICT Households survey has fixed modules (annual collection) and rotating modules (other frequencies). The indicators generated by the survey provide an overview of ICT access and use in Brazil and address various topics, such as:

• ICT access;
• Computer use;
• Internet use;
• Electronic government;
• Electronic commerce;
• Internet skills;
• Mobile phone use;
• Cultural activities on the Internet.

Institutional support

The survey receives support from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), as well as from a group of experts from various sectors.

International references

To enable comparability of its results, ICT Households adheres to internationally established methodological standards and indicators. The survey adopts the frameworks from the multi-sectoral initiative Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, led by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The main framework for indicators is the Manual for Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals.

Methodology

The units of analysis of the survey are households and individuals 10 years old or older. The sample plan uses information from the most recently available Census, and the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) or the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNADC), carried out by the IBGE. Face-to-face interviews are conducted in households in urban areas and, starting in 2008, also in rural areas. The survey sample is stratified and conglomerated in various stages, according to domains of interest for presentation of results.