Speed talk session 2
Partnerships for Integration of Data Sources
3 June 2026
13:15 – 14:00
ŠIBENIK III
Presentation title
Building partnerships to enable use of administrative and private data and improve quality of official statistics
Over recent decades, official statistics have increasingly been compiled by combining traditional survey-based data with administrative data, including microdata, and, more recently, with privately held data.
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However, accessing and integrating these sources into the production of official statistics remains challenging, in particular as regards quality, in many countries. Partnerships established between national statistical authorities and holders of administrative data as well as private data holders have become essential not only to secure access to data, but also to ensure that new data sources meet the quality requirements for the production of official statistics. Based on good practices identified in assessing the implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Good Statistical Practice in OECD member countries and adherent countries, this paper outlines four pillars covered by the Recommendation that, when considered together, provide a robust foundation for such partnerships and support the production of high-quality official statistics.
The legal and institutional framework, including robust statistical legislation, aligned with international standards and implemented through a well-developed institutional framework, and suitable bilateral agreements and protocols (e.g. Memoranda of Understanding) enable access to all administrative data, including microdata, for the development of official statistics, and set out term and responsibilities, confidentiality rules or quality standards.
The technical framework, composed of a digitalised IT and data architecture to enable secure data transmission, integration of microdata, interoperability of data sources, and data sharing for statistical purpose across the national statistical system while ensuring confidentiality and protecting privacy of data providers.
A national quality assurance framework for the national statistical system covering administrative and private data sources and providing guidance for both data holders and data producers to ensure data quality.
A co-operation framework, with formal or informal cooperation arrangements, including capacity building activities, efficient quality management, communication channels, any instrument fostering trust and facilitating the implementation of the legal, technical and quality framework.
These four pillars should be underpinned by a clear strategic vision and governance on the use of administrative data and privately held data and political support to realise this vision.
Adrian Zerbe
OECD
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Adrian Zerbe is a Junior Analyst at the Global Relations Unit of the Statistics and Data Directorate at the OECD. In this role, he works on the review of national statistical systems and official statistics including evaluations of the legal and institutional framework for statistics. As a distinguished scholar of the Carlo Schmid Program, Adrian firstly joined the OECD in 2019 where he focused on the implementation of the OECD recommendation on good statistical practice. Adrian holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Konstanz.
CO-AUTHOR:
Presentation title
Benefits and challenges in public and private administrative data sources
Cultural statistics, as part of the European Statistical System, increasingly relies on administrative data sources for the production of official statistics in specific cultural and audiovisual domains.
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These sources are provided by both public authorities and private data holders and enable more efficient data collection, broader population coverage, and improved data quality. In Croatia, administrative data have become a key input for annual statistical production in several cultural sectors.
In the field of libraries, cultural statistics uses the administrative database of the National and University Library as the primary data source for annual library statistics. In cinema exhibition, a transition is underway towards the systematic use of the administrative database of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, supporting the replacement of traditional survey-based data collection with administrative data in line with ESS recommendations on the reuse of existing data sources.
Private administrative data sources also play an important role. For many years, cultural statistics has relied on the database of the Association for the Protection, Collection and Distribution of Phonogram Producers’ Rights (ZAPRAF) for the production of statistics on sound recording production.
From 2026 onwards, cultural statistics will be expanded to include a new component of audiovisual statistics focusing on video games. In Croatia, the video game industry is organized through the Croatian Game Development Alliance, which brings together micro, small and medium-sized enterprises as well as associations. On an annual basis, the Alliance collects and publishes comprehensive administrative data covering all video game producers operating in Croatia, not limited to its membership.
These data provide detailed information on financial performance, employment structure, and the production of audiovisual works, classified by type of video game and in accordance with internationally recognized methodological standards applied by the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Using examples from different administrative data sources, this paper discusses both the benefits and challenges of their use in official cultural statistics. Key advantages include comprehensive population coverage, inclusion of small legal entities such as artistic organizations and associations, and a higher level of detail compared to traditional surveys. Identified challenges relate primarily to conceptual and terminological inconsistencies between statistical classifications and sector-specific regulatory frameworks.
Public and private administrative data holders are increasingly important partners in the production of official statistics. Strengthened cooperation and continuous dialogue are essential for ensuring high-quality, relevant, and harmonized statistical outputs within the ESS.
Gordana Bralic
Croatian Bureau of Statistics
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Gordana Bralić (born 1980) is a Senior Advisor at the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, in the Department of Education, Culture and Information Society Statistics, where she has worked since 2020. She is responsible for activities within the Culture Statistics section, including the modernization and implementation of new indicators, models, and methodologies, as well as establishing inter-institutional cooperation to improve efficiency and reduce research costs. Prior to joining the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, she worked in the cultural sector as a museum curator, public relations and marketing.
CO-AUTHOR:
Presentation title
Establishing an employment database through a Business Census
Data users around the world are relying more on granular data for policy development and decision-making.
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To support policy and business needs, the Singapore Ministry of Manpower has created a framework and ecosystem to collect employment data from more than 3 million employees through a Business Census. Data items include occupation, wages, job duties, work arrangements and location. This is further augmented by administrative data from other sources.
To make data collection more efficient, we have implemented various initiatives: (i) partnering with HR solution providers to access employment information through their database, (ii) setting up automated data transfer from companies and (iii) developing a one-stop portal to collect information linked to other transactional purposes.
Through these initiatives, we have reduced costs by 30% while maintaining high data quality. The information collected has enabled the government to implement policies and programmes to transform businesses and uplift incomes of low wage workers.
The paper looks at the processes that has led to the creation of the employment database and how it has benefited data users and the general population alike.
Ang Boon Heng
Ministry of Manpower (Nil)
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Ang Boon Heng is Director Manpower Research and Statistics Department Singapore. The department is involved in the production of official statistics on the labour market
CO-AUTHOR:
Presentation title
Enhancing short-term official labour demand statistics exploiting administrative data: the estimates of fixed-term and permanent jobs in Italy
Over the last ten years, the Italian labour market has undergone several reforms and active policies aimed at increasing and stabilizing employment.
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The initial plans, that acted through the reduction and simplification of the hiring costs, implied more flexibility in labour demand, causing a considerable increase of short-duration contracts. The most recent interventions were indeed aimed at reintroducing stricter limits on job recruitment, as well as providing enterprises with relief (mainly in the form of reduced Social Security contributions) to stimulate the creation of permanent contracts.
Monitoring employment by contract duration (fixed-term/permanent) is of a great interest for policymakers and analysts, and the assessment of its dynamic in the short-term might be crucial for addressing labour market policies. Currently, the Italian official statistics on the labour market mainly provide a supply-side view of this issue, through the Labour Force Survey. On the business side, statistics measuring the short-term development of fixed-term and permanent employment are highly fragmented and available in different institutional sources. At Istat, quarterly business statistics on employment are quite recent (released since 2015) and massively based on Social Security data, a very rich and timely administrative source, still partially exploited. Admin data are used in combination with census survey data on Large Enterprises (LEs). A recent reengineering of the complex metadata structure underlying the admin source has greatly simplified the management of the microdata production process and made data more usable, thus creating further opportunities for exploiting the admin source.
In this paper, we describe the main results of a study aimed at reorganising, processing and analysing Social Security admin data to recover employment indicators by contract duration, towards improving the relevance of short-term official statistics on labour demand. Further methodological solutions and integration with auxiliary sources were needed to overcome the limitations of admin data for the estimation of these new indicators, to treat the unavailability of LEs’ survey data on employment by contract duration and to strengthen quality assessment in a more detailed data framework. Solutions to achieve a subsequent reconciliation with the already released information on total employment were also needed . The new indicators were finally analysed at the light of the main labour market policies and of the business cycle and lastly cross compared with proxy indicators from other sources, including those relating to the supply side, to be validated as potential indicators in a coherent system of labour market official statistics.
Francesca Romana Pogelli
Istat
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Senior researcher at Istat. Since 2014 she supported the production and release of quarterly business based indicators on employment and labour cost for the National and European releases. Reference person for Italy for the implementation, compilation and delivery to Eurostat of quarterly employment and wages indicators as required by the 2019/2152 EB Regulation and she also supported the compilation of the quarterly and annual labour cost indices as required by the LCI Regulation 450/200.
Experienced in the planning and implementation of information and methodological structures based on the use of administrative data integrated with survey data, exploitation of new admin data; in the building of model-based estimations; in the treatment of non-sampling errors, imputation of non-responses; treatment of outliers, building and treatment of index numbers. Experienced also in seasonal adjustment, times series treatment, back casting and forecasting of time series, revision analysis and product quality analysis.
Presentation title
Coordination and cooperation within the Croatian statistical system: international trade in goods statistics
The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is the main producer, disseminator and coordinator of the official statistics system in the Republic of Croatia and the main representative of the national statistical system before the European and international bodies competent for statistics.
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One of the strategic goal of „Development Strategy of Official Statistics of the Republic of Croatia 2021 - 2030“ is effective integration and coordination of the national statistical system.
When it comes to ITGS (International Trade in Goods Statistics), the EU legislation prescribes a legislative framework binding for all Member States, which divides the system of official EU statistics on foreign trade in goods into two parts:
• EXTRASTAT – a statistical information system that records data on trade in goods with non - EU countries (extra-EU trade).
• INTRASTAT – a statistical information system that records data on trade in goods exclusively with Member States (intra-EU trade).
The way in which CBS achieves data coordination and cooperation within the national statistical system is by concluding an Agreement on Mutual Cooperation. Regarding the HR ITGS system, these are contracting parties bound by the agreement: CBS, Customs Administration, Tax Administration and APIS IT LLC.
The CBS, the Customs Administration, the Tax Administration and APIS IT LLC are bound by the Agreement on Mutual Cooperation for the Implementation of the Intrastat Survey.
A separate agreement between the CBS and the Customs Administration defines the roles and division of responsibilities related to the compilation of data in the Extrastat System.
Following basic methodological recommendations of the UN Statistics Division and Eurostat, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics statistically processes and disseminates the collected Intrastat and Extrastat data as a unique information on foreign trade in goods of the Republic of Croatia.
Data is provided to numerous users, one of the most important of which is the Croatian National Bank, which is also considered one of the producers of official statistics.
Finally, the paper outlines future changes in both the Extrastat and Intrastat systems, which primarily relate to amendments to the UCC (Union Customs Code) and the VAT Directive (ViDA). This represents a challenge that we, as compilers of foreign trade statistics, need to face now.
Zrinka Lokas
Croatian Bureau of Statistics
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Zrinka Lokas, born in 1983, Šibenik, Croatia.
Education: Graduate economist, Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb, Croatia.
Professional experience:
The Republic of Croatia - Croatian Bureau of Statistics - 2011 – present
Current position: Head of Extrastat Unit, Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics Department
Private sector experience: 2008 - 2010
Current member of ITGS WORKING GROUP, ITGS METHODOLOGY TF and ITGS COMPILATION & QUALITY TF.
Key qualifications: Knowledge of EU legislative acts and methodology in the field of ITGS. Continuous work on development of ITGS department.
Work in EU projects: Implementation of the Regulation on European Business Statistics (EBS): deployment of the customs data exchange Jan 2021 – Feb 2022, Intrastat/Redesigned and modernised Intrastat system implementation Nov 2019 – Dec 2021, BD TEC – link business demography to data on trade by enterprise characteristics, Jan 2017 – Jan 2018
Organisation
Patronage
