A key element in Statistics Denmark’s newly adopted Strategy – is that datadriven and evidence based decision making is key.
The Vision for Statistics Denmark in the 2025 strategy is:
“We are the preferred source of reliable knowledge on Danish society” and a sub goal – among others is that we as an institution want “to offer the most secure and easy access to data on Danish society”. This vision and goal builds on the fact that Statistics Denmark has more than 350 high quality registers or datasets. Many with a solid documentation.
Since the 1980s microdata for researchers has been made available in an organized way and since 1985 the Law Model based on a model on 3,3 % of the population designed for the law preparatory work, has been made available for the ministry of Finance in Denmark.
Based on these experiences Statistics Denmark chose in 20212 to offer a broad microdata access to all government Agencies, Authorities and Municipalities. We call it on a daily basis the Authority Arrangement.
Designed with the purpose of strengthening the data driven and evidence-based decision making in the Government and the municipalities.
The difference to normal Research project is access to full registers for 12 month at a time. With no project description necessary. Bur of course only access to relevant data for the resort area of the specific Government Agency/Authority. On top of this a fast track system with trained personnel who is dedicated to serving the data need of these public institutions. Using the infrastructure build for the Research Service giving access to microdata to researchers. And with the same level of data security and anonymization and rules for transferring the data/statistics. And we are making an effort to build on the development of the Office for Research Service in Statistics Denmark – e.g. the development of the Danish Data Portal.
One hurdle with the arrangement is the price. But more and more agencies and authorities chose this way and are currently supporting 22 agencies throughout Denmark.
Some of our customers on this Arrangement are themselves data owners, but rely on the professionalism and easy access to send data and receive combined datasets – ready to analyze upon.
Going back to the Strategy 2025 this Authority Arrangement places Statistics Denmark in a central role in the National Data landscape in Denmark.
We can on a daily basis show that we can handle, support and develop this Microdata arrangement which gives us a cutting edge in regarding the development of the future national data infrastructure in Denmark.
Statistics Denmark is also currently active as a partner in the strategic sector cooperation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark, where we support others NSA/NSO in their development. Often from a rather weak starting point – but we try to emphasize the importance of being central in the national data landscape as a key factor for strengthening the local NSA/NSO in both Africa and Asia.
