EUSTAT, within the framework of the University of the Basque Country Summer Courses, has presented the second edition of the Household Production Satellite Accounts with data relating to 2003. One of the main objectives of this work is to quantify household production not included in the assessment of Gross Domestic Product- GDP.

EUSTAT remains one of the few Statistics Offices within Europe to quantify unpaid household activity, applying the methodology recommended by EUROSTAT (Statistical Office of the European Union), despite recommendations made by this European body to this end.

The basic objective of the Household Production Satellite Accounts is to provide a global view of productive activities carried out in the home and estimate the economic value thus contributed. These activities are not only those included in the value of GDP, but also those excluded from it, making up the greater part of household production.

The Satellite Accounts relating to 2003 are the third to be produced, the previous ones having being made in 1993 and 1998, coinciding with the years in which the Survey on Time Budgets was carried out, providing statistics basic to the production of the Accounts, since they show, among other things, the time given by the population to household tasks.

The importance of work is not limited to the measurement of household work, but also it being carried out in line with the methodology proposed by EUROSTAT, which sets out to guarantee statistical rigour in the assessment of domestic production, a methodology similar to that used to calculate and estimate other economic activities included in the calculation of GDP.

Outstanding among the results of the study is that Basque household production, were it included in GDP for 2003, would come to 15,638 million euros, accounting for 32.8% of Gross Domestic Product, a percentage that has gradually fallen over the last ten years - over ten per cent in the period from 1993 to1998 and five in the period 1998 to 2003.

The reason for this reduction in unpaid household work is the economic growth that took place during these years, especially in the 1997-2000 period, which had a decisive influence on the female labour market, the main agent in household production, leading to the transfer of human resources from the unpaid household economy to the labour market. This same loss in weight of unpaid household work can be seen in the data of those countries with which it has been possible to make a comparison.

Distribution by function shows few changes as regards the data from previous years. The functions to concentrate a higher proportion of Gross Added Value were those of Nutrition (46.6%) and Housing (31.3%) and, to a lesser extent, the functions of Providing of Care (14.8%) and Clothing (8.4%). In terms of evolution, the functions related to Housing and Clothing have gradually lost weight and those related to Providing Care and Education to people and Nutrition have gained.

In the same way, there were no great changes as regards the female nature of household production (75.2% of female participation). The last ten years has seen men increase their participation by around 4%, an evolution that mainly took place during the first part of the decade, since in the last five years, this trend has lost momentum.

The functions with most male participation were Providing of Housing (31.3%), which, even in this five-year period, advanced by 1.4% and Neighbourhood help (34.2%). Men also increased their participation in the function related to Clothing, in which their role had been less important. On the other hand, in the functions of Care and Education and also Neighbourhood help, women increased their participation, especially over the last five years.

As for the work situation of the population that carried out unpaid household work, it was distributed as follows: 53.5% was carried out by the population classed as “Housewife/husband”, 26.3% was carried out by the “Employed”, 13.2% by the “Retired”, 4.1% by the “Unemployed”, 1.1% by “Students” and the rest by “Others”. There was a great imbalance between the weight of the various groups and their participation in household work, especially demonstrated among the numbers of the “Employed”. This analysis highlights gender differences once more, most significantly among “Students, where women carried out 83% of the work, compared to 17% done by men. The ”Retired”, on the other hand, was the group in which there was the greatest balance between the sexes.

Distribution by Province in Household Production remains unchanged with regard to the weight in terms of population of each one. Alava produced 13.6% of Household Work, Bizkaia 53.4% and Gipuzkoa 33%. Gender distribution was similar, with only Gipuzkoa maintaining male participation of around two points above the average of the A.C. of the Basque Country.