1. Commemorative Event for the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations Statistical Commission Seminar 'Evolution of the National Statistical Systems' 23 February 2007

2. Changing The Netherlands’ statistics: driving forces and response Gosse van der Veen

3. The Netherlands in 4 Bullets Population 16.360.228 (February 2007 estimated) Area 41.528 km 2 482 inhabitants per m 2 (January 2006)

4. The Netherlands in 4 Bullets Kingdom Founding member of the European Communities - Partner of EUROSTAT

5. The Netherlands in 4 Bullets

6. Gross Domestic Product NetherlandsEurozoneGermanyUS Procent volume mutations 0 1 2 3 4 5 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006

7. Statistics Netherlands (CBS)

8. Contents Characteristics The Netherlands’ official statistics Driving forces for change Implementing measures Where are we now? The years ahead

9. Characteristics Statistics Netherlands (CBS) Mission: To compile and publish undisputed, consistent & up to date statistical information that is relevant in practice and for policy and research purposes. Founded in 1899 with 5 employees in two rooms Employees in 2006: 2315 Total budget of € 174 mln.

10. Characteristics The Netherlands’ official statistics Highly centralised: Statistics Netherlands produces 95% of official statistics No regional offices Professional independence guaranteed by law and highly respected Strong tradition for statistical integration: system of national accounts and modules

11. Driving forces for change Budget cuts in 1999: minus 15 %Budget cuts in 1999: minus 15 % Users’ need for new statistical informationUsers’ need for new statistical information –But: work programme to remain intact –Strong emphasis on European demands Cutting back the administrative burdenCutting back the administrative burden Increased availability of external administrations and registersIncreased availability of external administrations and registers Competition from third parties (ICT developments, availability registerdata)Competition from third parties (ICT developments, availability registerdata)

12. Implementing measures Process for repriorisation of the work programme: room for new projects Standarised processes in the areas of business and social statistics (from product oriented to process oriented: => integrated data collection and data processing) Increased use of administrative sources (first external available data must be used, secondly surveys)

13. Implementing measures (2) Metadata servers for concepts and definitions to guide throughout the process Integrated output database: Statline -> freely available through www.cbs.nl www.cbs.nl

14. Where are we now? Core of business statistics is collected and produced following standarised processes Social data from registers and surveys integrated in Social Statistical Database Pilot meta data servers starts in 2007 Start of Integrated Architecture Framework (IAF)

15. The years ahead Budget: uncertainty Future budget reductions Further reduction administrative burden: high political issue. Further reduction of personnel?

16. The ambitions ahead Integrated Architecture Framework to be implemented in 2011 Integrated Architecture Framework: –Services: Concentation of similar functions in generic services –Rules: Control of process by business rules and chain management (standardization) –Transformation: focus on input- output process transformation Enrichment of outputs by more and higher quality

17. Challenges Change management from ‘thinking to doing’ Keep it simple Management of distortion of trends Management of expectations Management of management

18. Statistics Netherlands > 1677 tables with a total size of circa 7.9 gigabytes on the Internet (www.cbs.nl/statLine)www.cbs.nl/statLine