Abstract
SummaryMany National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), especially in Europe, are moving from single‐source statistics to multi‐source statistics. By combining data sources, NSIs can produce more detailed and more timely statistics and respond more quickly to events in society. By combining survey data with already available administrative data and Big Data, NSIs can save data collection and processing costs and reduce the burden on respondents. However, multi‐source statistics come with new problems that need to be overcome before the resulting output quality is sufficiently high and before those statistics can be produced efficiently. What complicates the production of multi‐source statistics is that they come in many different varieties as data sets can be combined in many different ways. Given the rapidly increasing importance of producing multi‐source statistics in Official Statistics, there has been considerable research activity in this area over the last few years, and some frameworks have been developed for multi‐source statistics. Useful as these frameworks are, they generally do not give guidelines to which method could be applied in a certain situation arising in practice. In this paper, we aim to fill that gap, structure the world of multi‐source statistics and its problems and provide some guidance to suitable methods for these problems.
Highlights
Many National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), especially in Europe, are moving from singlesource statistics to multi-source statistics
Multi-source statistics come with new problems that need to be overcome before the resulting output quality is sufficiently high and before those statistics can be produced efficiently
What complicates the production of multisource statistics is that they come in many different varieties as data sets can be combined in many different ways
Summary
Many National Statistical Institutes (NSIs), especially in Europe, are moving from singlesource statistics to multi-source statistics. This is due to higher quality demands with respect to the statistics produced: more detailed data, more timely data and a general demand for a faster response from NSIs to events in society. Many NSIs face budget cuts that make large-scale surveys too costly to set up and maintain. National Statistical Institutes traditionally have produced single-source statistics, where basically only data from a single data source are utilised. The single data sources are surveys, nowadays administrative data are more and more used as single data sources and Big Data are starting to be used The single data sources are surveys, nowadays administrative data are more and more used as single data sources and Big Data are starting to be used (see, e.g. Daas et al, 2015; Landefeld, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
