Presentation for the 58th Session of the International Statistical Institute, Dublin, Ireland.

1. Research on the quality of registers to make
data decisions in the Dutch Virtual Census
Presentation at the 58th World Statistics Congress of the
International Statistical Institute in Dublin
23 August 2011
Eric Schulte Nordholt (e.schultenordholt@cbs.nl),
Saskia Ossen (sjl.ossen@cbs.nl) and Piet Daas (pjh.daas@cbs.nl)

2. Combining research
Data decisions
Development of on secundary
a quality sources in the
framework for Dutch Virtual
administrative Census of 2011
data
Research on the quality of registers to make data decisions in the Dutch
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3. Contents
• Data considerations in the Dutch Census of 2011
• Introduction to the quality framework
• Results Source hyper dimension
• Results Metadata hyper dimension
• Results Data hyper dimension
• Conclusions
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4. Data considerations in the Dutch
Census of 2011 (1)
Last traditional census: 1971
Unwillingness (nonresponse) and reduction of
expenses  no more traditional censuses
Alternative: virtual census
1981 and 1991: Population Register and surveys
Development 90’s: more registers →
2001 and 2011:
integrated set of registers and surveys
European Census Act → hypercubes
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5. Data considerations in the Dutch
Census of 2011 (2)
Registers:
• Population Register (PR), >16.6 million records
• Jobs file, containing all employees
• Self-employed file, containing all self-employed
• Unemployment Benefit Register (UR)
• Social Security Register (SR)
• Education Register (ER)
• New Housing Register (HR)
Surveys:
• Survey on Employment and Earnings (SEE) stopped
• Labour Force Survey (LFS)
• Housing survey
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6. Introduction to the quality framewok
METADATA:
Focuses on the
SOURCE: - Focus on data source as a whole
(availability of the)
- Contact information related information required to
- Delivery related aspects understand and use the
- and more data in the data source
DATA:
- Technical checks
- Accuracy related
issues
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7. Results Source hyper dimension
Important
Suffers variables
Low frequency Purpose
seriously from are
of delivery dataprovider
selective missing
unclear
undercoverage
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8. Results Metadata hyperdimension
Time period in Time differences Unique
source can’t be in reporting keys can’t
transferred easily periods be easily
to the time point used for
needed linking
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9. Results Data hyper dimension -
completeness
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10. Results Data hyper dimension –
accuracy
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11. Results Data hyper dimension – accuracy
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12. Conclusions
• The virtual census has proved to be a successful
concept in the Netherlands
• The quality framework is a useful tool for making
data decisions in the virtual census
• The “quality study” started in this paper will be
extended to be able to determine how all census
variables will be derived
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13. Time for questions and discussion
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