Household Livelihood Survey

A household livelihood survey is an instrument designed to capture the full portfolio of activities, income sources, assets, and expenditures through which a household secures its living. Rooted in the rural-livelihoods literature associated with Frank Ellis and in global comparative income studies such as the CIFOR Poverty Environment Network, it measures welfare and resilience by mapping the diversity of a household's economic activities — farming, wage labour, self-employment, environmental harvesting, transfers, and remittances — rather than reducing the household to a single income or consumption figure.