Changing Statistics Netherlands: Driving forces for changing Dutch statistics

Statistics Netherlands is in the middle of radical changes. The increased complexity of society and the rapid changes it is going through imply an increasing demand for reliable statistical information. The focus is shifting towards thematically presented information providing more insight into how developments and sectors are related. Statistics Netherlands wants to speed up its flexible response to the changing needs for information. This requires combining data from various sources. Data gathering is shifting from primary to secondary collection of data (i.e. Data from administrative registers). In the future, Statistics Netherlands will be able to receive, process and store much larger quantities of register data. Statistics Netherlands laid down its vision on statistical production and information development in the document ‘Statistics that count’ (Statistics Netherlands, 2001). These developments have now reached the point where an outline of a Statistics Netherlands information and business architecture has been developed.