Nordic Statistical Meeting 26.-28.8.2019, Helsinki

1. A Quality Framework for
Official Statistics of Sweden
Joakim Malmdin, Director of Quality Management, Statistics Sweden

2. Background to the Quality
Framework for official statistics
• Former quality concept– a recommendation for official statistics (2001-2016)
• Sufficient quality and criteria for official statistics – guidelines (2006-2014)
• Government inquiry: Review of Statistics Sweden and System of official statistics –
proposal for quality criteria in Official Statistics Act (2012)
• Government measures to signal the importance of quality in official statistics (2013-
2016)

3. International quality frameworks
related to fitness for purpose
• Eurostat – ”fit for purpose”, continuous optimisation, differential quality assurance
for different kinds of statistics
• UKSA – quality means fit for their intended uses, consistency in information to
allow users to judge on quality and appropriate uses
• ONS – statistics generally recognised as fit for purpose, continuously improve
engagement with customers, understand quality, establish how far the quality
meets their needs
• ABS – quality generally accepted as fitness for purpose, implies an assessment
of output with specific reference to the intended objectives

4. The Swedish quality framework for
official statistics
• Quality concept with five main quality components.
The purpose of the statistics refers to the primary objective and area of use of
the disseminated statistics
• Quality documentation
• Evaluation of the quality of official statistics
• Guidelines on what constitutes official statistics

5. The Quality Concept
• Five main quality components, corresponding to the Code of Practice’s
five principles:
1. Relevance
2. Accuracy
3. Timeliness and punctuality
4. Accessibility and clarity
5. Comparability and coherence
• Regulated by law 2016

6. The Quality Documentation
• Statistical products are accompanied by quality declarations at the time
for publication
• Regulated by law 2016

7. Evaluation of the quality of official
statistics
• Annually for all published products and for all statistical areas
• The statistical authorities are responsible for their own self-evaluation
• Compiled and analyzed by Statistics Sweden
• Report to the government
• Regulated by law 2017

8. The cyclical procedure in support of
fitness for purpose
Datum 1/1
2018-10-01
Purpose
of the
statistics
Quality
require-
ments
Survey
design
Evaluation
Feedback to forthcoming years
Achieved
quality

9. The cyclical procedure (continued)
• Reflected in the evaluation of the quality of official statistics
• Follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach and thereby encourages producers to
continuously assess the statistics in relation to the most important uses reflected
in the purpose
• Better equips the producers to be able to describe the quality of their statistics
• Users receive more support in their own assessments of fitness for purpose

10. What constitutes official statistics?
• Recurrent and financed by public means
• Recurrent, European statistics
• Regulated by guidelines 2018, Director General of Statistics Sweden

11. Thank you!
joakim.malmdin@scb.se