Take me home: Attribute-driven spatial matching of registers in official statistics

Abstract

In response to the increasing demand for information, official statistics often rely on multi-source production processes. Since registers have lower production costs compared to sample surveys, they are frequently integrated to produce the required estimates. This paper proposes a reference reconciliation method for integrating a register of addresses with a register of buildings. The method exploits spatial proximity and property ownership information. It is implemented and evaluated using residential addresses from the Italian region of Tuscany, based on data from the Integrated System of Statistical Registers of the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Results show that the proposed method increases the percentage of matched addresses by 20%. Moderate precision and high recall values are key performance indicators of the approach. The method also allows for various extensions, including parameterization (e.g., urban/rural contexts), application to different statistical units and the use of complex distance measures.