Abstract

The experience of Polish statistics in the use of public registers concerns especially the round of the 2020/2021 censuses. The main arguments for maximizing the use of data from external sources were reducing the burden on respondents and increasing the efficiency of data collection and processing.
For this purpose, the Consultative Council for the Agricultural Censuses and the National Population and Housing Censuses was established (by Order No. 204 of the Prime Minister, dated 20 December 2017).
The main task of the appointed body was:
a) to systematize of data contained in registers and information systems of public administration;
b) to define the conditions for their cooperation and data exchange (in accordance with the requirements of interoperability);
c) the way in which information is made available for the purposes of the tasks carried out for the benefit of the census, by state authorities, citizens and entrepreneurs.
Moreover, the task of the system administrators was to ensure the functioning of IT and information standards, guaranteeing the cohesion and interoperability of the IT structure of public administration in public registers and information systems of public administration.
The identification of the quality of public registers and the quality of data from public registers is an important aspect of assessing their use as source data in the statistical production process. Following the censuses of the 2020/2021 round, the activities of the established Consultative Council have been adapted to the current needs of statistics, in terms of the use of official registers and public administration information systems for statistical surveys other than censuses.

Abstarct prepared by Janusz Dygaszewicz – director of ICT Systems, Geostatistics and Census Department, director of Central Census Bureau