Working Paper 
                      The Fifth Wave of the Indonesia Family Life 
                           Survey:  Overview and Field Report 
                      Volume 1 
                       
                      JOHN STRAUSS, FIRMAN WITOELAR, AND BONDAN SIKOKI 
                      RAND Labor & Population 
                      WR-1143/1-NIA/NICHD 
                      March 2016 
                      RAND working papers are intended to share researchers’ latest findings and to solicit informal peer review.  
                      They have been approved for circulation by RAND Labor and Population but have not been formally edited or  
                      peer reviewed. Unless otherwise indicated, working papers can be quoted and cited without permission of the  
                      author, provided the source is clearly referred to as a working paper. RAND’s publications do not necessarily  
                      reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.            is a registered trademark. 
               For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1143z1.html 
      
                                   
      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      
                   Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. 
                               © Copyright 2016 RAND Corporation 
      
                         R® is a registered trademark 
      

               Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights 
               This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND 
               intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is 
               prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and 
               complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research 
               documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit  
               www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.html. 
               The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help 
               make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is 
               nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.  
               RANDs publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. 
                                    Support RAND 
                             Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at  
                                 www.rand.org/giving/contribute 
                                    www.rand.org 
        We recommend the following citations for the IFLS data: 
         
        For papers using IFLS1 (1993): 
           Frankenberg, E. and L. Karoly.  "The 1993 Indonesian Family Life Survey:  Overview and Field 
           Report."  November, 1995.  RAND.  DRU-1195/1-NICHD/AID 
        For papers using IFLS2 (1997): 
           Frankenberg, E. and D. Thomas.  “The Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS):  Study Design and 
           Results from Waves 1 and 2”. March, 2000.   DRU-2238/1-NIA/NICHD. 
        For papers using IFLS3 (2000): 
           Strauss, J., K. Beegle, B. Sikoki, A. Dwiyanto, Y. Herawati and F. Witoelar.  “The Third Wave of the 
           Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS3): Overview and Field Report”.  March 2004. WR-144/1-
           NIA/NICHD. 
        For papers using IFLS4 (2007): 
           Strauss, J., F. Witoelar, B. Sikoki and A.M. Wattie.  “The Fourth Wave of the Indonesia Family Life 
           Survey (IFLS4): Overview and Field Report”.  April 2009. WR-675/1-NIA/NICHD. 
        For papers using IFLS5 (2014): 
           Strauss, J., F. Witoelar, and B. Sikoki.  “The Fifth Wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey 
           (IFLS5): Overview and Field Report”.  March 2016. WR-1143/1-NIA/NICHD. 
         
            
                                                                                 
                                                                               ii
                                           Preface 
           This document describes the design and implementation and provides a preview of some key results of 
           the Indonesia Family Life Survey, with an emphasis on wave 5 (IFLS5).  It is the first of seven volumes 
           documenting IFLS5. 
           The Indonesia Family Life Survey is a continuing longitudinal socioeconomic and health survey.  It is 
           based on a sample of households representing about 83% of the Indonesian population living in 13 of the 
           nation’s 26 provinces in 1993.  The survey collects data on individual respondents, their families, their 
           households, the communities in which they live, and the health and education facilities they use.  The first 
           wave (IFLS1) was administered in 1993 to individuals living in 7,224 households.  IFLS2 sought to re-
           interview the same respondents four years later.  A follow-up survey (IFLS2+) was conducted in 1998 
           with 25% of the sample to measure the immediate impact of the economic and political crisis in 
           Indonesia.  The next wave, IFLS3, was fielded on the full sample in 2000.  IFLS4 was fielded in late 2007 
           and early 2008 on the same 1993 households and their splitoffs.  IFLS5 was fielded in late 2014 and early 
           2015 on the same set of IFLS households and splitoffs: 16,204 households and 50,148 individuals were 
           interviewed. Another 2,662 individuals who died since IFLS4 had exit interviews with a proxy who knew 
           them well. 
           IFLS4 was a collaborative effort of RAND and Survey Meter.  Funding for IFLS5 was provided by the 
           National Institute on Aging (NIA), grant 2R01 AG026676-05, the National Institute for Child Health and 
           Human Development (NICHD), grant 2R01 HD050764-05A1 and grants from the World Bank, Indonesia 
           and GRM International, Australia from DFAT, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of 
           Australia.   
           The IFLS5 public-use file documentation, whose seven volumes are listed below, will be of interest to 
           policymakers concerned about socioeconomic and health trends in nations like Indonesia, to researchers 
           who are considering using or are already using the IFLS data, and to those studying the design and 
           conduct of large-scale panel household and community surveys.  Updates regarding the IFLS database 
           subsequent to publication of these volumes will appear at the IFLS Web site, 
           http://www.rand.org/FLS/IFLS. 
           Documentation for IFLS, Wave 5 
               WR-1143/1-NIA/NICHD:  The Fifth Wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS5): Overview 
               and Field Report.  Purpose, design, fieldwork, and response rates for the survey, with an emphasis 
               on wave 5; comparisons to waves 1, 2, 3 and 4. 
               WR-1143/2-NIA/NICHD:  User’s Guide for the Indonesia Family Life Survey, Wave 5.  Descriptions 
               of the IFLS file structure and data formats; guidelines for data use, with emphasis on using the 
               wave 5 with the earlier waves 1, 2, 3 and 4. 
               WR-1143/3-NIA/NICHD:  Household Survey Questionnaire for the Indonesia Family Life Survey, 
               Wave 5.  English translation of the questionnaires used for the household and individual interviews. 
               WR-1143/4-NIA/NICHD:  Community-Facility Survey Questionnaire for the Indonesia Family Life 
               Survey, Wave 5.  English translation of the questionnaires used for interviews with community 
               leaders and facility representatives. 
               WR-1143/5-NIA/NICHD:  Household Survey Codebook for the Indonesia Family Life Survey, 
               Wave 5.  Descriptions of all variables from the IFLS5 Household Survey and their locations in the 
               data files.