Bulgarian experience in the use of
administrative data sources for
production of official statistics by
economic sectors
Janka Nikodimova,
National Statistical Institute
and
Youlia Antonova,
UNSD
1
Overview of the administrative data
sources and economic statistics
• Needs for the use of administrative information
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Government policy on reduction of respondents burden
Reduction of costs of statistics
Growing demands for detailed statistical data
Harmonization of Bulgarian Statistical System with the
requirements of the EU
• Prerequisites for the use of administrative data
for economic statistics
– Law on Statistics
– Existence of a System of unique identification numbers for
economic units
– Co-operation between statistical offices and other
administrative authorities
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The Law on Statistics
• Gives powers to the Bulgarian Bodies of Statistics for “the
realization of statistical activity by, registers and information systems
they maintain as well as data exchange between them”
– Bodies of statistics includes the NSI and the respective structural units
within the Ministries, institutions and other bodies of the central and
local administration that carry out statistical activity
• Provides the legal framework for statistical use of administrative
data
• Makes provisions for the right of access to administrative data
– Bodies of Statistics have the right, upon written request and free of
charge, to obtain from other State bodies and holders of register data
collected by them which are required in the statistical surveys included
in the National Programme for Statistical Surveys
– The provision of administrative data is organized on the basis of formal
agreements between the NSI and each of the state bodies
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The Task Force
• 2003
– A Task Force group was created to undertake a
comprehensive investigation of the existing administrative data
sources in Bulgaria
– Main objectives of the TF
• To identify the existing administrative data sources
• To create a list with their names, responsible institution, type of
information collected etc.
• To find out to what extent the administrative information have
been utilized by the NSI departments for the production of official
statistics
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The Task Force (cont.)
• 2005
– Update of the existing registers and information systems in
state administration
• 200 new registers were set up for the period 2003-2005
– Follow up review of the use of administrative data sources by
the NSI departments
• Objectives
– Assessing the progress in the use of administrative information since 2003
– Assessing how individual departments in NSI overcame the challenges of
using new information
• Organization
– On the basis of a short questionnaire sent to all department heads within
the NSI
– A new department “Data from administrative sources” within the
NSI was established
• Tasks
– To monitor the developments in the national registers system
– To maintain a copy of the data from the main administrative registers used for
statistical purposes
– To deliver, process and store the data from multipurpose sources
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Review of the use of administrative data
sources for statistical purposes
• Carried out on the basis of a short questionnaire
• The questionnaire asked about the following
characteristics of each administrative data source:
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Name
Content of the data
Institution/organization administering the data source
Basis for having access to the information in the
administrative data source
– Frequency of the provided information
– Delay after the deadline for submission of data
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Review of the use of administrative data
sources for statistical purposes (cont.)
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Dissemination format
Method of delivering the information
Stability of the administrative data source
Statistical surveys in which administrative information is
used
How the administrative information is being used
Problems (difficulties) faced while using the
administrative information
Views about the future use of the administrative data
source
Suggestions for changes in the administrative data
source
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Use of administrative data sources
by economic sectors
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Macroeconomic statistics
• National accounts
– Sources – Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, National Revenue
Agency
– Advantages – full access to the MF database, detailed
information
– Problems – data confidentiality
• International Trade Statistics
– Sources – Customs Agency
– Advantages – the information is used as a frame for statistical
surveys and directly
– Problems – data confidentiality; diminishing importance of this
data source with the membership of Bulgaria to the EU
(INTRASTAT system)
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Macroeconomic statistics (cont.)
• Financial Statistics
– Sources – Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, National Social
Security Institute, Financial Supervision Commission
– Advantages – these data sources provide nearly census
coverage
– Problems – the last data source is very dynamic, provided
information is dependent on the legislation changes and
harmonization with the EU regulations
• Labour Statistics
– Sources – National Social Security Institute (Register of
Insured Persons), National Employment Agency
– Advantages – supplement the information from statistical
surveys, update the Statistical Business Register
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Business statistics
• Registers
– Statistical Business Register (SBR)
• Law on statistics - legal basis for the
establishment and maintenance of a SBR
• SBR is based on:
– Administrative “BULSTAT” register
– Statistical surveys
• Unique Identification Number (UIN)
– Register of Insured Persons, maintained by the
National Social Security Institute
• Identification of statistical units (enterprises and
local units)
• Update of data on employed persons
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Business statistics (cont.)
• Statistics of Enterprises
– Sources – Annual income tax declarations of single bookkeeping units provided by the General Tax Directorate of
Ministry of Finance; employment data from the National Social
Security Institute for the same units
– Advantages – tax data are used directly for the estimation of
output/VA of the units; data are cross-checked with
employment information
– Problems – the statisticians find it extremely difficult to bind the
relevant information from the two data sources and to identify
properly those units
• Despite the existing UIN the definition of units is
incompatible
• Incorrectly filled identity numbers in the tax or social
security declarations
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Regional and Multi-Domain Statistics
• Agricultural statistics
– Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) – responsible for
current and structural agricultural statistics
– NSI – responsible for the Economic Accounts for
Agriculture (EAA)
• Sources – A large number of different registers in the
area of agriculture and forestry, as they exist and are
maintained by the agencies of MAF, incl. the Register
of Agricultural Farms
• Advantages – NSI has direct access to or receives the
administrative data; the information provides
exhaustive coverage of units
• Problems – data for EAA are census type data,
referring to a particular point of time, their continuous
update is necessary
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Regional and Multi-Domain Statistics
(cont.)
• Environment Statistics
– National and international requirements for presenting
exhaustive environmental data
• Sources – Executive Environmental Agency of the
Ministry of Environment and Water; Executive Hydro
Melioration Agency
• Problems – delays in data delivery; change in coverage
of data items; extremely unsatisfactory quality and
coverage of water supply data
– NSI considers discontinuing the use of water supply
data from Executive Hydro Melioration Agency and
conducting an ad-hoc survey of water supply firms
14
Demographic and Social Statistics
• Consumer Price Index and Purchasing Power
Parities
– Sources – Ministry of Economy and Energy, State
Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, data
from the Enterprise Resource Planning Systems of
some companies
– Advantages – cooperation with these companies is
considered to be very positive; multipurpose use of
data received
• Population Statistics Department
– Sources – National Register ESGRAON of the
General Directorate “Civil Registration and
Administrative Services" (CRAS) to the Ministry of
Regional Development and Public Works; Ministry of
Interior
– Problems – confidentiality of data
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Demographic and Social Statistics
(cont.)
• Health Statistics
– Sources – National Health Insurance Fund; National
Centre for Health Information
– Advantages – full implementation of the Fund
information system, will allow NSI to have access to
the basic data of health establishments
– Problems – aggregated form of provided information
so far
• Education Statistics
– Sources – Register of the Licensed Centers for
Vocational Education; Register of Secondary
Education
– Advantages – NSI has been granted with full access
to the registers information
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Conclusions
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General
• The access to the administrative information for statistical
purposes is provided on the basis of signed formal
bilateral agreements between NSI and other institutions,
custodians of administrative databases
– The agreements specify the terms of provision of administrative
information as well as the deadlines
• Some departments have well established practice of
efficient use of administrative information
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General (cont.)
• The most significant for NSI registers and administrative
information systems are utilized for the purposes of
either economic or social statistics, especially those
having multi domain significance
• In their vast majority the administrative data sources are
used predominantly as a sampling frame for statistical
surveys
• The electronic way (CD or e-mail) is the main method of
delivering the administrative information
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Problems
• Only a limited number of the existing 400 administrative
data sources/registers is being used directly as a source for
production of statistical data
• Not all statistical departments have fully investigated the
potential of administrative data
• Some cases of delayed data delivery have been observed
• Some authorities provide very aggregated information,
which may hamper the compilation of official statistics at
detailed activity or regional level
• The quality of some administrative data sources does not
satisfy fully the statistical criteria
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Future developments
• NSI expects to get further benefits from the use of
administrative data over the next few years as their full
potential will be exploited
– In business statistics - the administrative information will be
directly used for production of data for particular groups of units
(below certain threshold)
– In social statistics – the statistical application of administrative
data will be enhanced mainly in the area of education and social
protection
• NSI is working to find the legal mechanism to impact on the
form and content of administrative sources in ways making
these more useful for statistical purposes
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Thank you
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