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Administrative sources and quality Administrative sources and quality of statisticsof statistics

Øystein OlsenDirector General, Statistics Norway

Round table on the use of administrative data Chisinau, Moldova, May 28th 2010

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Main points to be addressed

• The basis for using administrative sources in statistics production

• A register based strategy – some experiences from Statistics Norway

– The management of statistical populations– The Norwegian Population Census 2011

• Conclusions

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Statistics Norway in a nutshell:

• Independence anchored in The Statistics Act (1989)

• 1000 employees– Responsible for 85 percent of all official statistics in Norway

• A Research Department within the institution– Serving ministries with macroeconomic and micro simulation

models

• Statistics based on administrative registers and surveys

• About 300 statistics produced and 1000 (news) releases on www.ssb.no annually

• International cooperation– The EU/EFTA statistical system– International consulting

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The use of administrative data (1)

Preconditions:• Legal base

– Access to administrative data – Data protection (“one way traffic”)

• Public approval

• Common identifiers

• Comprehensive and reliable register systems

• Co-operation among authorities– Formal (bilateral) agreements– Feedback to register owners

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• The use of administrative data is cost effective

• The exploitation of administrative data is of utmost importance in order to reduce the burden

The NSI should take an active role!

• There are limitations to the use of administrative data– Inflexibility regarding choice of categories– Time lags and insufficient updating

One cannot avoid direct data collection!

The use of administrative data (2)

Lessons learned:

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Aspects of quality in register based statistics

• Relevance (for statistics)

• Accuracy (of each record)

• Timeliness (update of registers) and reference time

• Comparability (over time)

• Accessibility and clarity (documentation)

• Administrative concepts

• Coverage and completeness

• Record matching ability

• Compatibility (between file formats)

• ConfidentialitySource: Eurostat meeting on Assessment of quality in statistics 2003

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Master registers and statistical registers

The baseregister

The owner ofthe register

Statistics Norway

A truecopy

The statistical base register

Statistical registers are the building block of statistical systems

The original

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Original register Statistical version

Administration of statistical populations

Address is the link key

Address is the link key

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e-Government: A common data delivery portal

Altinn Portal

ALTINN

NationalQuestionnaire

Repository

CCRERegisterfor Legal Entities

PredefinedRespondent

Roles

Questionnaire design

SNMetadata

SBRBusiness Register

Statistics Norway

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Assosiated registers to CCRE

Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities (CCRE)

BrønnøysundRegister Centre

Directorate of Taxes

VAT register

Corporate Taxation

Data RegisterRegister

ofBankruptcies

Register ofBusiness

Enterprises

Norwegian Labourand

Welfare Organisation

LotteryInspection

Register

of Foundations

Statistics Norway

(SN)

Business Register(SBR)

Registerof

Employers

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Towards a fully register based census….

CPR

GAB

Education

Social security.

Income

Labour market

PersonsFamiliesCouples

Households DwellingsBuildings

Questionnaires

Dwelling address project:Establishing a link between dwellings and resident persons

Families and householdsDevelop register-basedstatistics

DwellingsDevelop register-basedstatistics

Combined method in 2001: € 12 500 000A register based census in 2011: € 1 250 000 (estimate)

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Multi-dwelling buildings before Census 2001

Main street 8 A

H0101

H0102 H0103

H0104

?

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Multi-dwelling buildings after Census 2001

Main street 8 A

H0101

H0102 H0103

H0104

But quality problems always exist…..

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Registerbased Education Statistics

Each year:

Registerbased data from schoolowners

YearlyStatistics

Tertiary ISCED 5-670 universitiesand colleges

Upper secondaryISCED 3-4.From Counties

National education database(NUDB)

Year XYear X+1Year X+2…..

Longitudinal data:

- Enrollment

- Graduates

- Educational attainment

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Conclusions

• Efficient usage of administrative sources require strong political support

• The legal framework is decisive– should secure NSI’s access to administrative data

• Common e-Government initiatives, like Altinn, are also major contributions to the quality of registers.

• The Norwegian experience: – The multiple usage of administrative registers, and close

cooperation between register owners and (re)users of data has substantially increased the quality of the basic statistical populations, and the statistical output.

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Thank you for your attention!

Questions ?