Statistics Sweden and the System of Official Statistics

Statistics Sweden and the System of Official Statistics in Sweden Inger Eklund Director, Statistics Sweden 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Contents Swedish national administration and the role of Statistics Sweden 2. The System of Official Statistical 3. Regulations and guidelines 4. Outcome and factors of success 1. 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Statistics Sweden’s place in the national administration The Parliament The Government Ministry of Finance Ministry Public Statistics Public Authority Sweden Authority 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Role of public authorities in Sweden l In accordance with the Swedish Constitution, public authorities in Sweden have an independent role vis-à-vis the Government. The task of a public authority is to translate political decisions reached by the Parliament and the Government into practical action. 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The roles of Stat Sweden Responsibility for • multi sectoral statistics • coordination of official statistics • international cooperation and reporting statistical data to international organisations • developing nomenclatures and classification standards for statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The Statistical System I l. A quite centralised system of official statistics before the mid ’ 90 s l Decentralisation by the Statistics Reform in 1994 l 25 responsible authorities l Statistics Sweden still central government authority for official statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The Statistical System II l Evaluation in 1998 showed that the overall view of official statistics had worsened l Foundation of a Council for Official Statistics in 2002 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The Statistical System III • 22 subject matter areas • 321 statistical products (of which • Stat Sweden is responsible for 119) 70 % of the official statistics are presently produced by Statistics Sweden 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Responsibilities of other authorities within the system • Decides • budget for Official Statistics within their own appropriation • contents and scope of the statistics within its subject matter area • on new surveys and a closure of a survey • Responsible for quality and dissemination of the statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The system includes. . . • • • Laws and other regulations General recommendations Statistics and metadata Production systems Guidelines Tools and methods 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The system includes. . . • Statistical authorities • The Council for Official Statistics • Statistics Sweden as a coordinating body for Official Statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The Council for Official Statistics • The members • are appointed by the Director General of Statistics Sweden after consultation with the agencies responsible for Official Statistics. • are appointed for three years. • Chaired by the Director general of Statistics Sweden 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The tasks of the Council • advisory body who deals with matters of principle concern as availability, quality, the usefulness of the official statistics and response burden • annual report on the official statistics • annual publishing plan • improve cooperation between the statistical authorities 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Soft coordination by broad-based cooperation • A report on statistical co-ordination for the official statistics of Sweden • The Council’s secretariat and working groups • Seminars, courses and study-tours • Annual conference on official statistics • Guidelines as support 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

The Infrastructure • The entrance to the Internet • Publishing plan • Templates for descripton and qualitydeclaration of the statistics • Templates for the product-site • A database on products • Rules for changing the content of official statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Guidelines • Recommendations on Publishing • Guidelines for decisions on the contents and scope of the Official Statistics • Sufficient quality and criteria for official statistics • Preliminary statistics 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Follow up • • • Publishing plan Punctuality and production time Electronic publishing Documentation The use of the designation ”Official Statistics of Sweden” • Costs to data providers • Statistics by sex • Costs and staff 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Outcome so far • A joint view among the authorities • Rules for how to carry out changes in the System • Channel to Statistics Sweden • Increased awareness about user needs, response burden and the importance of disaggregating statistics • The overall view and the availability of the statistics has improved 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007

Factors of success Strong support by the top management Increased exchange of experience among the authorities Close cooperation with statistical units at the authorities and with the departments at Statistics Sweden Close cooperation with representatives for the respondents Strong infrastructure and a system for follow-up 4 th International Conference on Agruculture Statistics, Beijing, October 2007