Regionalization of statistical activities – problems and new technical possibilities

Abstract

The following problems are of concern to statistical offices. (1) To what extent should the increasing demand for statistics be met through regionalized public statistical activities and to what extent should it preferably be met from a central organization? (2) How is the optimal solution affected by the availability of new technical tools?

The pattern of centralization/regionalization in a statistical production system is discussed in terms of four kinds of subprocesses (collection, preparation, aggregation and dissemination) and three kinds of resources (hardware, methodology and manpower).

Regional users have different statistical demands which may be in conflict with each other and with the demands of central users. Their first claim must be to get access to statistics, particularly for their own region, with a content and a quality adapted to their needs. They may be induced to start own activities on subprocesses earlier in the production chain, if these subprocesses are not designed in accordance with their needs.

The aim of the central statistical organization (CSO) should be (1) to minimize duplication of work as far as possible and (2) to secure a development of statistics which is consistent and comparable between regions and with national statistics.

A tentative norm for a well-balanced solution is seen in the centralization of all three kinds of resources for the collection and preparation activities. For aggregation too the dominating pattern should be centralization. To some extent, however, clean micro-data might be put at the disposal of regional authorities for regionalized aggregation operations, preferably in accordance with a common method. For dissemination the dominating pattern is regional. The hardware used for dissemination is assumed to be either centralized and regionally manipulated through terminals, or regionalized or some combination of both.

EDP technology has introduced new possibilities to satisfy original demands for statistics. One is to transfer clean micro-data to users (e.g. in the form of a tape copy), possibly to be handled by them on their own computer. Another solution is to disseminate statistics to the regional users from a centrally stored data base which they manage interactively from terminals. In Sweden such a system has been developed which consists of a data base management system called AXIS (Auxiliary System for Interactive Statistics) and a data base called RSDB (Regional Statistical Data Base).