Income tells you what households earn; the China Household Finance Survey (中国家庭金融调查) tells you what they own and owe. Run by the China Household Finance Survey and Research Center at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Chengdu), CHFS is China’s leading household balance-sheet survey: housing units and market values, mortgages and consumer debt, financial assets, entrepreneurship, insurance, and financial behavior — gathered in biennial rounds since 2011, from roughly 40,000 households per round in recent waves, across 29 provinces and 323 districts/counties. It is the micro-evidence base for questions like household leverage, housing affordability, financial inclusion, and the distribution of wealth.
One caution shapes everything below: the survey keeps being fielded — the eighth round wrapped up in 2025 — but the newest data confirmed publicly available for research is from 2019. As of September 2026, whether the 2021 and 2023 waves have been publicly released is unconfirmed: a 2025 peer-reviewed paper states they “have not been released yet,” while a third-party researcher resource page lists 2021 as available. Any analysis of post-2019 household balance sheets cannot rely on CHFS until release status is confirmed.
Identity
- Producer: China Household Finance Survey and Research Center (中国家庭金融调查与研究中心), Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (西南财经大学), Chengdu.
- Coverage period: 2011–present, biennial rounds (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025; the eighth round’s wrap-up summary meeting was announced on the official site in December 2025).
- Wave currency: latest fielded round: 2025 (eighth). Latest confirmed research-available data: 2019 (per a 2025 peer-reviewed paper in Springer Financial Innovation, which states seven rounds 2011–2023 were conducted but the 2021 and 2023 data “have not been released yet,” basing analysis on 2013–2019). 2021/2023 public-release status: unconfirmed — a third-party resource page lists waves through 2021, in conflict with the peer-reviewed paper.
- Geographic coverage: national, mainland China. The 2011 round was pilot-scale (8,438 households across 80 districts/counties in 25 provinces); later rounds expanded to 29 provinces and 323 districts/counties.
- Unit of observation: household (with individual-level modules).
- Sample scope: roughly 40,000 households per round in recent waves (one review-documented round covered 40,011 households / 127,012 individuals, representative at national, provincial, and sub-provincial-city levels). The 2013–2019 research panel comprised 62,262 household-year observations from 14,907 households, of which 9,164 were tracked in every wave — an unbalanced panel with a strong tracked core.
- Update frequency: biennial rounds.
What’s measured
Household assets (housing units and market value, financial assets, industrial/commercial assets), liabilities (mortgages, consumer loans, private lending — amounts, interest rates, terms), financial behavior and literacy, entrepreneurship and business operations, credit applications and approvals, income and consumption, insurance and social security, intergenerational transfers, demographic characteristics, employment, housing (multiple-unit ownership, vacancy, price-to-income), and debt-to-income ratios.
Survey design
Three-stage probability-proportionate-to-size (PPS) sampling (secondary sources). The questionnaire has four parts: demographic characteristics; assets and liabilities; insurance and security; expenditure and income. The center also publishes periodic household-finance reports, such as the China Household Debt Report series.
Access
- Access point: the official center portal, http://chfs.swufe.edu.cn/; data-center page at https://chfs.swufe.edu.cn/dczx.htm (cited in secondary sources). Link: http://chfs.swufe.edu.cn/
- Access terms: free and open to the public, application-based — “datasets publicly available and can be obtained by application at the data center” (per a 2025 data-availability statement).
- Landmark reference: Gan et al. 2014 (the foundational CHFS methodology paper, cited across the literature).
What it’s used for
Household wealth inequality, housing affordability and household leverage, financial inclusion and digital finance, entrepreneurship financing constraints, household debt and financial vulnerability, and savings and consumption. The center’s own China Household Debt Report series (e.g., 2023) is a published annual source; CHFS micro-data provide balance-sheet evidence for household-finance reporting, cross-referenced against PBOC/NBS official aggregates.
Limits of interpretation
- This is a household-finance survey, not a macro-financial aggregate. It measures balance sheets and should not be read as a substitute for PBOC/CSRC administrative data.
- Its housing variables describe ownership and household debt exposure — not property prices as a market index. Do not cite CHFS as a house-price series.
- Rural and low-income household coverage is thinner than urban; some researchers drop the rural sample entirely for urban-finance analysis.
- Housing market values are owner estimates, subject to owner-estimation bias; vacancy and multiple-home measures depend on the household definition.
- It does not measure health or biomarkers (use CHARLS), cognition or child development (use CFPS), social attitudes and values (use CGSS), or agricultural production detail.
- The center is a university research unit, not a government statistical agency — it does not set official statistics, and its headline figures (e.g., housing-ownership shares, vacancy rates) have been debated in Chinese public discourse. Use with methodological context.
- Because post-2019 wave releases are unconfirmed, analyses of 2021+ household balance sheets cannot rely on CHFS until release is confirmed.
Known revisions
- 2021/2023 public-release status: unconfirmed, with conflicting secondary sources (2025 peer-reviewed paper says unreleased; third-party resource page lists 2021 as available). Treat 2019 as the latest confirmed research-available wave.
- Eighth round (2025) fieldwork completed; release timeline not announced.
Authoritative documentation
- Official CHFS center portal (identity, producer, eighth-round 2025 summary notice): http://chfs.swufe.edu.cn/
- Gan et al. 2014 (foundational methodology paper)
- Springer Financial Innovation 2025 paper (rounds 2011–2023, 2021/2023 unreleased statement, 2013–2019 panel detail, 29 provinces/323 districts); NBER w23741 (2011 urban housing/wealth patterns); MDPI Sustainability 2025 (data-availability statement)