Quality data - the mission of the CBS

Celebrating World Quality Day

World Quality Day is celebrated on the second Thursday in November, promoting the values of quality and encouraging the development and progress of organizations, societies and individuals. It was initiated by the United Nations back in 1990, and this year it takes place under the slogan “Quality: from compliance to performance”.

What is quality in statistics?

Official statistics are the basis for decision-making, creating policies, measuring progress and evaluating the well-being of society at large. Reliable and quality data encourage transparency in decision-making and strengthen the public trust in the work of statistical offices.
Quality statistical data are the backbone of the mission of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, which is to follow European standards and provide high-quality statistics for national and European purposes. In order to really accomplish this, that is, for the collected data to be a snapshot of the past, a reflection of the current state and even a forecast of some future trends, they must be relevant, accurate and reliable as well as ethically obtained.

The quality of statistical processes and products can be defined as “fitness for purpose”, “fitness for use’, “meeting user needs” and “user satisfaction”.

The main document on quality is the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System, which emphasizes that the common mission of the European Statistical System, of which CBS is a part, is to obtain independent statistical data on a high level of quality on the European, national and regional level and to make these data available to everyone for decision-making, research and discussions.

The European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP) sets the standard for developing, producing and disseminating national and European statistics, and enables the Croatian Bureau of Statistics to continuously work with users on statistical quality by providing them with the necessary information to understand quality in statistics. It also establishes a system that gives answers about how well the quality meets their needs. 

The main principles of quality

According to the Quality Declaration, the main principles of quality are:

• Relevance (signifies the degree to which statistical product meets user needs in terms of content and coverage)
• Accuracy and reliability (refers to how close the estimated value in the output is to the true result)
• Timeliness and punctuality (describes the time between the date of publication of statistical data and the date to which the data refers, and the time between the actual publication and the planned publication of statistical data)
• Coherence and comparability (the degree to which data derived from different sources or methods, but which refer to the same topic are similar, and the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain, for example, geographic level)
• Accessibility and clarity (ease with which users can access data, and the quality and sufficiency of metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice). 

The quality of statistical processes, end results or products and of the provision of services is evaluated by assessing user satisfaction. The User satisfaction survey for 2024 is in progress, so we invite you to fill out the questionnaire and help us improve our products and work.

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” 
(William Adelbert Foster)

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