Abstract

Official statistics are almost exclusively based on data collected through surveys and censuses on the one hand, and administrative records on the other. However, modern society and the economy are increasingly fuelled by data held by private organisations, such as transactions data, mobile networks data, sensor data, etc., that have so far hardly been used as a source for official statistics. This situation is undesirable and unsustainable for several reasons. Such privately held data are essential to understanding society and the economy. They can shed light on new phenomena such as the use of platforms and can provide details that surveys can never offer. Using such data for official statistics would significantly increase their timeliness, level of detail and scope, while enhancing quality and also possibly reducing response burden and costs. In short, such data are indispensable for maintaining the high relevance of official statistics.

The paper presents the initiatives in the European Union to use and integrate privately held data in the production of official statistics on a sustainable basis. These include legislative initiatives in the context of the data strategy of the European Commission, in particular the revision of the framework legislation on European statistics. This revision, which was initiated by the European Commission in February 2022, is expected to introduce enforceable mechanisms for reusing data sources emerging as by-products of digital services that are privately held, for the compilation of European statistics, under specific conditions and subject to a set of binding safeguards. It aims at finding the right balance between the public interest of having all information needed for evidence-based policy and decision making and public debate, the justified concerns of data holders and the concerns of the public whose data are to be reused for statistical purposes. Such a balance requires building true partnerships between statistical authorities and data holders, transparency and citizen participation.