Presentation of Statistics Denmark

DGINS Conference26 May 2005

Jan PlovsingNational Statistician

Director General

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Presentation: Overview

1. Key figures and history2. Organisation and governing

bodies3. Data and data collection4. Electronic dissemination5. Strategic management and

planning6. User and citizen surveys

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Some key statistics 2004

• Population (mio.) 5.4 1 January 2005

• Life expectancy– Females

79.9 – Males 75.2

• Unemployment (pct.) LFS 5.4

• Balance of payments Pct. of GDP 2.4

• Public finance Pct. of GDP 2.6

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Some characteristic features of Statistics Denmark

• Professionally independent institution• Centralised statistical system• Register-based statistical system• Small institution with a high proportion of

income from users (27 pct.)• Considered very trustworthy• Great emphasis on electronic dissemination:

– StatBank Denmark– Online internet access to micro data

• Management by objectives and contracts

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1769 First population census in Denmark (incl. Norway etc.)1850 Foundation of Statistics Denmark. Government Department1896 First Statistical Yearbook1966 Independent institution with its own Act. 1973 Denmark joins the EU. Part of the ESS.1976 First register-based population census1981 First register-based population and housing census1996 www.dst.dk

2001 “StatBank Denmark” on the Internet free of charge2001 On-line internet access to microdata

Short History

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Statistics Denmark: One Location

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Budget: 43 mill. €

Income from customers16%

Annual Governmentgrant

73%

Financial contributions from ministries and EU for specific statistics

9%

Staff in 2004: 555 employees (full-time equivalents)

144 of these are paid by own income

Key figures for 2004

2% Income from

publications

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263,0

272,2

257,5

264,9

558

589

525

549

200,0

225,0

250,0

275,0

300,0

325,0

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

300

400

500

600

I ncome

Staff

Income and staffParliamentary

appropriation and own income

(Mill. DKK in 1997-prices)

Staff by 1 January (full-time, excl. interviewers)

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Social Statistics

Population and Education

Labour Market

Social and Health

Income and Registers

Interviews and Market Services

Research Services

Business Statistics

Business Structure

Agriculture and Transport

Manufacturing and Construction

Service Sector

Methods

Business IT

Economic Statistics

National Accounts

Balance of Payments

Government Finances

Prices and Consumption

External Trade

Economic Models

International Consulting

User Services

Dissemination Centre

Information Services

Administration Centre

IT-Centre

Internal Services

International Secretariat

Policy Secretariat

National Statistician

The Board ofGovernors

The Ministry of Economic and

Business Affairs

Social Statistics User ServicesEconomic StatisticsBusiness Statistics

Statistics Denmark’s organisation1 May 2005Re.2

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Statistics ActProfessionally independent institution

The Board of Governors:• Consists of 7 members. 6 of the members are appointed by the

Minister (4 years). The National Statistician is Chairman.• Decides the annual work programme and approves the budget• Decides on the extent to which and the manner in which data shall be

collected• Establishes advisory committees (6 at present)

The Minister of Economic and Business Affairs:• Has responsibility for the annual government grant, staff matters plus

overall parliamentarian responsibilityThe National Statistician:

• Responsible for the statistics production and chargeable services • Responsible for the content and publishing of all statistics• ”News from Statistics Denmark” are released to everybody at 9.30 a.m

sharp, according to a schedule announced 3 months in advance • Responsible for the international cooperation • Responsible for the economy, organisation, data security, etc.

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• Most statistics are produced by Statistics Denmark (80 pct.)(10 pct. by the Danish central bank and 10 pct. by other government authorities)

• Other public authorities must coordinate their efforts with SD if they intend to collect and process statistics

• SD will supervise or assist in the organisation of central public registers which can be used for statistical purposes

• Statistics mostly or entirely produced by other government authorities: Fishery Research and innovation Health Environment

• Shared responsibility: Financial (with the Danish central bank, which is also responsible

for all monetary statistics)

Statistics Act Central authority for Danish statistics:

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Data and data collection

• A register-based statistical system

• Data from administrative registers are edited and organised in statistical registers

• The data system is highly integrated across subject areas and time

• There is still a large number of statistics based on questionnaires to businesses and a few on interviews with individuals

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The Statistical Information System

Personid:

Person Number

Enterpriseid:

CBR-No

Dwellingid:

Address

Health

Tax

Employ-ment

Educa-tion

Social

CPR1968

BDR1977

CBR1975

Question-naire

Inter-view

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• All public authorities must supply information in their possession

• Private businesses must supply information within the legal framework• Act on Statistics Denmark• EU legal acts (App. 200) • Non-compliance is sanctioned

• Individuals have no obligations• The administrative burden imposed by Statistics

Denmark on private businesses amount to 22 mio. € (Mistral-method)

• Intrastat accounts for 3/4 of the burden• Statistics Denmark has laid down an action plan to

reduce the burden (electronic reporting, etc.)

Access to Information

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StatBank Denmark• Online and free of charge for everyone• Complete English version• Statistics released 9:30 a.m. at: www.dst.dk are

simultaneously released at a greater level of detail • More than 1,000 tables, several billions data• Links to documentation (declaration of contents)• Links to publications• Saved queries• Data shooting• Output formats: Excel, PC-AXIS, SAS, etc.• Maps and graphs

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External retrievals from StatBank 1986-2005

2005 estimated

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Online internet access to micro data

• Only for researchers and analysts from authorized research and analysis environments

• Authorization by the National Statistician (now: 123)

• Special computers separated from the statistical production

• The de-identified micro data (individuals and businesses) remain at SD

• Output with statistical results are forwarded by e-mail

• Strict data security measures and severe sanctions if the rules are not complied with

• Construction of individual micro data sets

• General research databases (labour market, demographic, social, medical prescriptions, etc.)

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The Planning System

Strategy 2006Strategy 2006 Long-termobjectives

Fee

db

ack

Fee

db

ack

Feedback

Annual Work ProgrammePerformance-based contract with Ministry

Departmental contractsContracts at the level of division

Annual Work ProgrammePerformance-based contract with Ministry

Departmental contractsContracts at the level of division

Specific annual goals

The annual reportExternal and internal surveys

The annual reportExternal and internal surveys

Results, evaluation and feedback

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(resources)

(resources)

Important Management Tools

MinistryMinistry

Societyin generalSociety

in general

National Statistician

NSI

National Statistician

NSI

Director

Department

Director

Department

Head of

Division

Head of

Division

Grant

Contract (goals)

Results

Delegation

Contract (goals)

Delegation

Contract (goals)

Results Results

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Internal contracting – Performance agreements

• The aim is to achieve the objectives in the Annual Work Programme and in the performance-based contract with the Ministry

• To delegate the responsibility for reaching these goals throughout the organisation

• Two types of internal contracts are formed annually:

– Departmental contracts:• formed between the National Statistician and the

directors,

• define the goals that the department should achieve

– Contracts at the level of division:• formed between the directors and their heads of

division

• define the goals that the division should achieve

• All employees become involved in discussing draft contracts

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The importance of delegation

• The four departments have their own part of the budget decided by the National Statistician once a year

• Their budget consists of: xxx man-years (approximately 99 pct. of all personnel) money for salary negotiations once a year money for travels, conferences, seminars, meetings,

education (approximately 3 pct. of non-salary budget)

• Reduced by 2-3 per cent per year (productivity gains)

• Increase/decrease depending on own income• Major new tasks: a possibility for an increased

budget

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Example: systematic use of performance indicators

66

59

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Improved timeliness 1994-2004

Average publication times in 2004: M = 30 days, Q = 60 days, A = 226 days

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Index

Monthly statistics

Annual statistics

Quarterly statistics

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Feedback from citizen and user surveys

1. Citizen survey (2004):• 79 pct. think that statistics are “very” or “fairly”

important for decision-making, research and debate

• 70 pct. think that Statistics Denmark is objective and politically neutral but 5 pct. that we are subject to political interests

2. User surveys:• Customer satisfaction survey for chargeable services

(conducted continuously)

• Publications

• Website and StatBank Denmark

• Qualitative surveys and focus groups

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I look forward to welcoming you at tonight's official dinner at the Louisiana Museum of

Modern Art!