Surveys of living conditions in the communist countries of Eastern Europe. Approaches and uses (1950-1980)

Following the division of Europe into two blocs after 1945, measuring living standards became an important political issue in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe, against a backdrop of growing competition between the Soviet Union and the United States. From the 1950s onwards, surveys of family budgets were the basic tool used. These were soon extended to include a study of the population’s living conditions. Surveys of families’ time budgets were carried out for this purpose, and in a number of countries, social indicators were developed to quantify what was termed the population’s “well-being”. Eastern European countries took part in a number of East-West comparative surveys in this field. This paper analyses the uses and methods of the main surveys on consumption and living conditions carried out in these countries by statisticians and researchers in economics and sociology between 1950 and 1980.