Since its inception in 1963, the Indonesian National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) has been a major source of data on social welfare of the Indonesian population. Since 1992, the survey has been divided into a core that covers basic socioeconomic characteristics of households and household members, and modules that cover special topics such as consumption, household income, household welfare, tourism, crime, nutrition, housing, etc. Starting in 2003, SUSENAS added a panel segment to the survey.

The 1985 survey was conducted nationwide in February, covering 18,700 households on trade and household enterprise, 72,000 households on transportation, and 4,000 on transportation and household enterprise.