The Development of Social Statistics in the
European Statistical System
Michel GLAUDE
Director Social and Information Society Statistics
EUROSTAT
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics
1

Societal changes and new challenges in Europe
 Globalisation
 Population ageing
 Increased ethnic and cultural diversity
 Individualisation
 Innovation and technological change
 Gender equality?
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics 2

The role of the EU
 In line with subsidiarity and proportionality requirements MS should have the main responsibility for policy design and implementation
 EU actions are aimed at rising awareness and setting up policy frameworks for action based on the Open Method of
Coordination
 OMC works through:
- Setting of common objectives
- Exchange of best practices
- Reporting by MS according to their national strategies
- Synthesis made by the Commission and endorsed by the
Council
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics 3

Peculiarities and strengths of the European statistical system
 A relatively new system compared to the national statistical systems
 Production of national statistics is done by the national statistical institutes, Eurostat does the aggregation…
 The regulatory instrument: Once Member States have reached agreement (by qualified majority) all EU countries have to apply the programme
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics 4

Statistical needs
 A comprehensive set of Indicators
- Structural and SDI indicators but also
- Leaken (social inclusion), Education,
Gender…indicators
 Satellite accounts (linked to National accounts)
Social protection, Health, ICT, tourism, labour…
 Anonymised sets of microdata for the research Community
- LFS, SES, EU-SILC, CVTS
 Statistical analyses, monographic publications
 High quality is paramount
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics 5

A statistical strategy: The essence of the work
Stat Tools
Stat demands
Labour market
Short term Stat
Administrative sources
Surveys Accounts Others:
National sources
……..
National
Registers
Quarterly
LFS
LCI
Health care &
Long term care
Indicators
Others …….
EU-SILC
EHIS
SHA Healthy Life expectancy
(Nat sources)
11 September 2008 Expert group meeting on the scope and content of Social Statistics 6

A statistical strategy: The essence of the work (2)
Member States x
Statistical Tools x x x
Statistical Demands
With an European point of view a third dimension (MS) is to be added to the previous matrix
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A statistical strategy : Basic principles
 Anticipation
 Cooperation (Incl. with International Organizations)
 Exploit the potential of administrative sources
 Enhance comparability. By more input harmonisation?
 Division of work between NSIs and Eurostat
 Develop Data Analyses
 Assess the costs and benefits of statistics
 Defend the values of Official Statistics
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State of play
 Important efforts have been made over the last ten years to harmonise the main data collections at EU level by adopting a set of Framework Regulations concerning:
- Surveys: LFS,EU-SILC, SES, LCS, CVTS, ICT, AES, EHIS...
Social Accounts: ESSPROS, SHA, Tourism, ICT sector…
- Quality reports which are regularly released
 Moreover:
- Main results are disseminated free of charge on the web
- Anonymised Microfiles are accessible for Researchers: LFS,
SES, EU-SILC, CVTS
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Current Challenges
 Quality
In particular as Comparability is concerned
 Responsiveness
To EU policy makers needs
 Integration
From a practical point of view
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Proposals at a transversal level
 The “Core Social Variables” project
- 16 identical variables collected in every EU social survey concerning Demographic, Economic and Geographic
Information
- To produce for sub populations information coming from various domains (Labour market, , Health, poverty…)
 The European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC)
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Proposals at a transversal level (2)
The European Household Survey
 Objectives: Rationalisation and responsiveness
A system of Household survey modules
270 000 Individuals (15+)
 Regular Modules :
- Core variables
- ICT usage
- Health Indicators
 Five years Modules
- AES
- EHIS
 Ad-Hoc modules to respond to new policy needs :
Discrimination, Victimisation, Consumer protection, Care services, Youth, Fertility, Social Capital…
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Main Statistical challenges For Migration Statistics
 A clear shift from national to European issues
 Mainstreaming Migration in all policy areas and data collection
 Amending or launching new Surveys
 Better using administrative information (on residence permits for example)
 A need for a European Integrated System for the exchange of migration data (both aggregate and possibly microdata) between MS
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