The average cost of housing has nearly doubled since 1993 and average rents have jumped from $911 to $1,432, the newly released 2004 Household Expenditure Survey has found.

The fourth HES, produced by the Department of Statistics, was produced from a survey of 1,003 homes last year. It builds on statistics from the 1974, 1982 and 1993 surveys. The HES gathers income and expenditure information for government, particularly for revision of the weighting pattern of the compilation of the Consumer Price Index.

The CPI measures the annual rate of inflation.

Further analysis by the statisticians provides a wealth of information on socio-economic and demographic variables in the Island. In a new development since 1993, the HES gathered information on Internet access and cyber- commerce.

Started in April 2004 and completed in September, the survey also looks at post Fabian expenditure ? albeit incorporated in general figures on expenditure on outstanding repairs.

The Island?s average income has increased along with the cost of living according to the survey, with the average weekly household income in 2004 totalling $2,043 compared with $1,263 in 1993.

Average yearly household income in 2004 was $84,350. This showed a ?significant? 61 percent increase over the $52,285 average yearly income in 1993, they said.

The 2000 Census reported the average yearly income was $71,662.

The average cost of housing in 2004 averaged at $512 per week, but in 1993, the average cost of housing was $269 per week.

?Renters experienced an increase of 57 percent over the 11-year period from $911 per month in 1993, to $1,432 per month in 2004,? a summary produced by the Department of Statistics said.

And of those heads of households that were surveyed, 51 percent owned their own home, while 46 percent rented. Householders spent an average of $1,537.54 a week on goods and services for personal and home consumption compared to $973 per week in 1993. Utility bills have increased almost 30 percent since 1993 ? with the average home spending $51 per week in 2004 compared to $39 in 1993.

People are eating out more often, spending $64 every week in restaurants.

?In 2004, households spent more than one third of education expenditure on overseas post-secondary education,? the Department said. Health insurance premiums cost the average home in Bermuda $77 per week.

Interviewers spent five months going to 1,003 homes.

But they reported a good response rate of 78.5 percent as people from 787 homes participated in the survey.