Re-engineering Dutch social surveys: From single-purpose surveys to an integrated design

Abstract

Statistics Netherlands and its division of Socio-economic and Spatial Statistics are facing increasing quality demands by customers and stakeholders. Information is needed at more detailed levels and more and more crossings need to be made among different variables of interest. Also timeliness and coherence of statistics are important issues. Next to these demands there is a strong incentive to collect data more efficiently and to reduce the costs of data collection.

The growing possibilities of administrative data sources, the rise of the internet as a survey mode and the availability of new methods and techniques provide opportunities to answer these demands. In 2010 as part of a large scale re-engineering programme of Dutch household surveys, an integrated design of household surveys combined with optimal use of administrative data and mixed mode data collection was introduced. This integrated design that consists of core questionnaire and specific topic modules can make social statistics richer, more cost-effective and more useful as a tool to answer policy needs.