Statistics Portugal’s data dissemination policy

Keywords

Principle 5, data dissemination, policy, user-oriented, geospatial data

This use case describes the data dissemination policy of Statistics Portugal and the technical solutions used for data dissemination.

Statistics Portugal’s Dissemination Policy for Official Statistics (2008) follows a clear user-oriented policy, assigning the greatest importance to meeting customers’ needs and expectations as efficient and comprehensive as possible. Wide and easy access to Statistics Portugal’s information is the main priority, as well as improving the quality of the service provided. Transparency, which must underlie the production and dissemination of official statistics, thus requires a detailed clarification of the Revisions policy.

The Dissemination Policy of Statistics Portugal lays down the fundamental principles governing the dissemination of official statistics, directly or indirectly produced under its responsibility, and follows the main reference of the applicable fundamental principles of the National Statistical System (NSS): technical independence, statistical confidentiality, quality and accessibility. The Dissemination Policy of Official Statistics also should consider the standards established by the Organic Law of Statistics Portugal and based on principles and good practices recommended by the European Union and United Nations.

Since one of the main principles of the Dissemination Policy highlights the requirement to have precise, reliable, consistent and comparable official statistics in space and time, geospatial data plays a relevant role in the dissemination stage.

Dissemination service
The Portal is the main channel of dissemination of information. On the Statistics Portugal’s website, it’s possible to:

1. browse and download free of charge a significant volume of information (including geospatial data; e.g., Geographic Information Referencing Base (BGRI) shapefile);
2. have access to other electronic services, which includes subscribing contents or sending requests on information not available on the website;
3. have access to the Digital Library of Official Statistics, that contains the images of all publications issued by Statistics Portugal since 1864, totalling over 1.5 million pages.
4. Interactive applications, including “Geohab” which is a web application the allows the interactive search of median prices on dwellings sales for cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants, for territorial units defined by the user based on the statistical section or a 500m x 500m grid, facilitating the analysis of the prices charged in the different areas of each city. This tool is a good example of how Statistics Portugal is using geospatial data for the dissemination of official spatial statistics since is based on the geo-referenced administrative information used for Statistics on house prices at local level. It also considers data confidentiality issues for dissemination purposes.

Sale service
The customers can also acquire both published and ”tailor-made” information.

• Published information can be acquired at Statistics Portugal premises or ordered on-line, by fax or email.
• ”Tailor-made” information involves research and/or treatment of information. As a result, a value-added product is obtained, whose costs are borne by the customer.

The deadline for its delivery depends on the complexity of the information and related processing methods required. Its sale is subject to statistical confidentiality and data representativity. This information can be obtained through the same channels as the published information.

For more information about the data dissemination policy, please see: https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_inst_pdifusao