The Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) are household surveys implemented by countries under the programme developed by the

United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid t ...

to provide internationally comparable, statistically rigorous data on the situation of

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

ren and

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

. The first round of surveys (MICS1) was carried out in over 60 countries in mainly 1995 and 1996 in response to the

World Summit for Children The United Nations World Summit for Children was held in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City on 29–30 September 1990. The summit had the then-largest-ever gathering of heads of state and government to commit to a set of goals to impr ...

and measurement of the mid-decade progress. A second round (MICS2) in 2000 increased the depth of the survey, allowing monitoring of a larger number of globally agreed indicators. A third round (MICS3) started in 2006 and aimed at producing data measuring progress also toward the

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenn ...

(MDGs), A World Fit for Children, and other major relevant international commitments. The fourth round, launched in 2009, aimed at most data collection conducted in 2010, but in reality most MICS4s were implemented in 2011 and even into 2012 and 2013. This represented a scale-up of frequency of MICS from

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to c ...

, now offering the survey programme on a three-year cycle. The fifth round, launched in 2012, was aimed at offering countries the tools to do the final MDG data collection. In 2016, the sixth round was launched with an effort towards collecting baseline data for the new set of global goals and targets - the

Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

(SDGs). As of mid-2022, a total of more than 350 surveys have been completed in 119 countries and territories. The MICS is highly comparable to the

Demographic and Health Survey The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program is responsible for collecting and disseminating accurate, nationally representative data on health and population in developing countries. The project is implemented by ICF International and is funded ...

(DHS) and the technical teams developing and supporting the surveys are in close collaboration.

Survey tools

At the core of MICS is the list of indicators. In MICS6 this is a compilation of now 200 distinct indicators (237 counting those requiring sex disaggregate). The list is not inclusive of all standard tabulations produced in a full survey, but forms those that are central to global monitoring by UNICEF and others. The list is a central message in MICS, as no question is asked in the questionnaires without directly contributing to an indicator algorithm or a background variable. Thus, survey-specific additional questions are always suggested to follow the same guidelines: No question should be asked without a clear plan for tabulation of results.

Questionnaires

The MICS

questionnaires A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...

are: * Household, administered to any knowledgeable adult member of the household (in MICS1–MICS3 this was to the head of household). * Women, administered to all eligible women (age 15–49) of the household. * Children under age five, administered to their mothers. If the mother is not listed as a member of the household, a primary caregiver is identified as the respondent to this questionnaire. * As of 2011, a questionnaire for men (age 15–49) has also been developed and is included in the generic set of questionnaires. * As of MICS6, a questionnaire for children age 5–17, administered to the mother of a randomly selected child per household. In MICS, the generic questionnaires include all modules, such that implementers only should remove non-applicable or non-desired modules and questions, e.g. the ITN module in non-malarious countries. The full set of generic modules include:
Household Questionnaire * Household Information Panel * List of Household Members *

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

* Household Characteristics * Social Transfers * Household Energy Use * Insecticide Treated Nets *

Water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

and

Sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

Handwashing Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap or handwash and water to remove viruses/bacteria/microorganisms, dirt, grease, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the hands ...

* Salt Iodisation * Water Quality (a module, but designed as a separate questionnaire, due to sub-sample selection) Individual Questionnaire for Women * Woman's Information Panel * Woman's Background *

Mass Media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...

and ICT * Fertility/Birth History ( Mortality) * Desire for Last

Birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

Maternal ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...

and

Newborn An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

Health *

Post-Natal The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal perio ...

Health Checks *

Contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

* Unmet Need * Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting * Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence *

Victimization Victimisation ( or victimization) is the process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology. Peer victimisation Peer victimisat ...

Marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

* Adult Functioning *

Sexual Behaviour Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

Maternal Mortality Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...

Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and Alcohol Use *

Life Satisfaction Life satisfaction is a measure of a person's well-being, assessed in terms of mood, relationship satisfaction, achieved goals, self-concepts, and self-perceived ability to cope with life. Life satisfaction involves a favorable attitude towards one ...

Questionnaire for Children Under Five * Under-five Child Information Panel * Under-Five's Background *

Birth Registration A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensui ...

Early Childhood Development Early childhood development is the period of rapid physical, psychological and social growth and change that begins before birth and extends into early childhood. While early childhood is not well defined, one source asserts that the early years b ...

Child Discipline Child discipline is the methods used to prevent future unwanted behaviour in children. The word ''discipline'' is defined as imparting knowledge and skill, in other words, to teach. In its most general sense, discipline refers to systematic ins ...

* Child Functioning *

Breastfeeding Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that br ...

and Dietary Intake *

Immunisation Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-se ...

Anthropometry Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various at ...

Individual Questionnaire for Men * Man's Information Panel * Man's Background * Access to

and Use of ICT *

Fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

* Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence *

Circumcision Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Top ...

and Alcohol Use *

Questionnaire for Children Age 5-17 * Child's Information Panel * Child's Background * Child Labour *

* Child Functioning * Parental Involvement * Foundational Learning Skills

Other tools

The MICS package also includes data entry program (in

CSPro CSPro, short for the Census and Survey Processing System, is a public domain data processing software package developed by the U.S. Census Bureau and ICF International. Serpro S.A. was involved in past development. Funding for development come ...

) catering for paper-based or tablet-based data collection, standard tabulation plan (in

Excel ExCeL London (an abbreviation for Exhibition Centre London) is an exhibition centre, international convention centre and former hospital in the Custom House area of Newham, East London. It is situated on a site on the northern quay of the ...

) and syntax (in

SPSS SPSS Statistics is a statistical software suite developed by IBM for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, and criminal investigation. Long produced by SPSS Inc., it was acquired by IBM in 2009. C ...

), workshop training programmes, in-country capacity building and technical assistance, data dissemination templates, as well as various online resources, such as a survey data compiler (MICS Compiler). The tools are all compiled on the MICS website, which was launched in an modernized format in March, 2015.

Current status

The 6th round of MICS commenced in October 2016 with the initiation of the Programme's Survey Design Workshops and was scheduled to run to 2021 (this has since been extended to 2022, mainly due to COVID-19 related delays of face-to-face surveys). The content is expanded to cover new priorities, including adjustments to cover approximately half of the survey-based

SDG The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".United Nations (2017) R ...

indicators (about 40 of about 80). The 6th round's tools were piloted in Costa Rica in mid-2016, and was preceded by a Field Test of new or refined questionnaire modules and tools for data collection and processing in Belize end of 2015. In November 2017 additional questionnaire modules were tested in Malawi. A similar exercise was conducted in Belize in April 2019. The MICS Programme is participating in methodological development of new data collection tools, such as on water quality testing, child disability, external economic support, and impact of emergencies. A methodological paper series was launched in 2012. The programme has been evaluated following rounds 1, 3 and 4.

Funding

The total cost for MICS3 was about $18.6 million (and about $356,000 per country) according to a 2008 MICS evaluation. MICS4 was estimated to cost $31.3 million.

Countries

The countries listed below have conducted (or plan to conduct) a MICS survey. Reports and data are available on the MICS website. X: National Survey S: Sub-national Survey Note: Only countries from UNICEF's official list are included. It appears that some surveys are based on the MICS tools, but not included in the list, e.g. Botswana 2007-08 Family Health Survey and Bangladesh 2009 Progotir Pathey (MICS). The total number of countries having ever conducted a MICS (or plan to do so) is 119. This includes Yugoslavia, which at the time of MICS1 and MICS2 was the territory now split into Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia. In MICS5, five countries were new to the programme: Benin, Congo, El Salvador, Mexico, and Paraguay. In MICS6, eight additional countries have conducted or are planning surveys: The Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Honduras, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Turks and Caicos Islands.

Use of survey data

Survey data are widely used, predominantly in multi-country analyses, but also often for simple trend analyses in single countries. An example of use of MICS data is provided by Monasch et al. (2004). Due to the near perfect comparability between MICS and

DHS The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...

, much analysis draws on multiple data sets of both programmes. However, each survey programme have modules specific to their mandates and not often used in both programmes. For example, a recent compilation of evidence on child discipline makes use of surveys that included the Child Discipline Module; these were all MICS. UNICEF (2010).UNICEF
Child Disciplinary Practices at Home: Evidence from a Range of Low- and Middle-Income Countries
, New York, 2010. Most global statistics, such as on the indicators of the

MDGs The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenni ...

rely heavily on data collected through MICS (and other household surveys), particularly for countries where administrative reporting systems are not entirely adequate. Other global statistics rely on only household survey data, such as the

Multidimensional Poverty Index Multidimensional Poverty Indices use a range of indicators to calculate a summary poverty figure for a given population, in which a larger figure indicates a higher level of poverty. This figure considers both the proportion of the population that ...

developed by OPHI and reported by

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

. Examples of recent publications are listed under external links.

References

{{reflist

External links

Recent examples of use of MICS data

* Takeuchi, LR (2015)
"Intra-household inequalities in child rights and wellbeing: a barrier to progress?"
ODI Development Progress, Research Report 02, March 2015 * Arabi, M., Frongillo, E. A., Avula, R. and Mangasaryan, N. (2012)
"Infant and Young Child Feeding in Developing Countries"
Child Development, 83: 32–45. * Sipsma ''et al.'' (2012)

Bull World Health Organ 2012;90:120–127F * Cappa, C. and Khan, SM (2011)
"Understanding caregivers’ attitudes towards physical punishment of children: Evidence from 34 low- and middle-income countries"
Child Abuse & Neglect. Volume 35, Issue 12, December 2011, Pages 1009–1021

Household survey programme websites

UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)

USAID Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)

WHO Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)

Generations & Gender Programme (GGP)

* ttp://smartmethodology.org Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART)
World Values Survey (WVS)

Regional programmes

Arab League Pan-Arab Project for Family Health (PAPFAM)

EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)

Networks

International Household Survey Network (IHSN)

The Inter-secretariat Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS)