Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that Macao was home to 181,074 households in 2012/2013, an increase of 13,887 compared with 2007/2008. In view of the substantial increase in households, the average household size shrank further over the past five years, from 3.14 in 2007/2008 to 3.05 in 2012/2013. Analysed by type of housing, a total of 155,746 households (86.0% of total) were living in private housing, 18,886 (10.4%) in economic housing and 6,442 (3.6%) in social housing.
Monthly consumption expenditure of all households reached MOP 5.28 billion, surging by 68.5% from 2007/2008 in nominal terms or 37.7% in real terms after removing the effect of prices. Average monthly consumption expenditure amounted to MOP 29,177 per household, an increase of 27.1% in real terms.
In respect of household consumption structure, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Housing & Fuels were two important household spending, accounting for 51.4% of the total consumption expenditure, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from five years ago. The relative importance of Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages (25.7% of total) declined by 1.9 percentage points in comparison with 2007/2008; on the contrary, soaring property prices pushed up the relative importance of Housing & Fuels by 4.7 percentage points, at 25.7% in 2012/2013.
The average biweekly consumption expenditure outside Macao amounted to MOP 1,063 per household. Analysed by city or region, Guangdong Province remained the most popular location, with household spending a biweekly average of MOP 634, while spending in Gongbei and Zhuhai was MOP 527. In addition, biweekly consumption expenditure in Hong Kong rose by 47.7% in real terms over the past five year, at MOP 232.
Household income registered robust increase amid continuous economic growth. Total monthly income of all households reached MOP 7.50 billion in 2012/2013, up by 45.2% in real terms. In comparison with five years earlier, the average monthly income (MOP 41,423) and monthly disposable income (MOP 39,545) per household increased by 34.1% and 54.3% in real terms respectively.
Employment income constituted the primary source of household income (73.4% of total), which was followed by property income (14.6%) and monetary transfer receipts (12.0%). As a consequence of the increase in social welfare and subsidies, the relative importance of monetary transfer receipts rose from 9.8% to 12.0%. As regard property income, rising rentals spurred rent receipts from property leasing by 75.4% in real terms.
The percentage share of households having monthly income under MOP 30,000 stood at 39.3%, down substantially by 19.4 percentage points over the past five years, among these households, relative importance (14.6%) of those having monthly income under MOP 15,000 declined by 9.8 percentage points. On the contrary, 30.7% of households having monthly income of MOP 50,000 and above, an increase of 15.7 percentage points from 2007/2008.
Over the past five years, increase in household income (34.1% in real terms) exceeded the increase in consumption expenditure (27.1% in real terms). Households having monthly income under MOP 30,000 dropped notably, while those having monthly income of MOP 30,000 and above rose substantially, indicating that income growth was broad-based and beneficial to households in different income groups, and household income was more equally distributed. The Gini coefficient that measures the inequality of income distribution stood at 0.35 in 2012/2013, lower than 0.38 as recorded five years ago; excluding government subsidies, Gini coefficient was 0.38, also lower than that of 0.40 in 2007/2008.
