Federal Statistical Office (Switzerland)

The Federal Statistical Office FSO (French Office fédéral de la statistique OFS, Italian Ufficio di Statistica federale Tax, Romansh Uffizi federal since Statistica ) is a federal agency of the Swiss Confederation. It is the Statistical Office of Switzerland, based in Neuchâtel and the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (DHA ) is assigned.

The FSO is the national service and competence center for statistical observation in important areas of government and society, economy and environment. The FSO is the most important statistic producer in the country and leads the data pool statistics Switzerland. It provides information in all thematic areas of public statistics.

The FSO is closely linked to the national scene statistics, to partners in science, business and politics. In addition, it maintains a good working relationship with the Statistical Office of the European Union, so that internationally comparable information can be provided.

In its statistical activities, the FSO provides important principles such as privacy, scientific, professional independence, timeliness and service orientation.

History

With the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848 won the statistics on a national level in importance: The role of the Statistics Department of the Interior - this under Stefano Franscini, who conducted a first census in 1850 in the newly founded state.

In 1860 saw the founding of the Federal Statistical Office ( now the Federal Statistical Office) in Bern, where it was located until 1998. Since 1998, the seat of the BFS is centrally under one roof in Neuchâtel.

In the year of the founding of the BFS, the law was adopted in every ten -yearly censuses. Ten years later, the legislation was expanded: in 1870, parliament passed a tight, confined to organizational issues law on the " official statistical recordings in Switzerland". This was in 1992 replaced by the modern designed Federal Statistics Act. The new Federal Constitution of 1999 for the first time includes an article (Art. 65) for statistics. 2002, it came to the adoption of the Charter of the Switzerland government statistics. For their objective belongs to formulate, among other general professional ethical principles, which are based on international principles, but reflect the peculiarities of the statistical system of Switzerland. The bilateral agreement between Switzerland and the European Community on cooperation in the statistics entered into force in 2007.

The Statistical Yearbook of Switzerland was first published in 1891 and has since been published continuously by the FSO. Since 1987, the FSO makes important statistical information available electronically online, 1996, this service was expanded and added to the database STATINF and website.

Tasks

The FSO produces and publishes important statistical information about the state and development of state and society, economy and environment. It supplements this by comprehensive analyzes, developing scenarios for future developments and ensures the historical database.

For data acquisition, various methods are used: Direct Survey, more or less automated observation, analysis of administrative data, censuses and sample surveys. The efficiency of modern statistical information systems is largely determined by the type of data collection. It enjoys the systematic use of existing data for legal and financial reasons priority over new direct surveys with corresponding burden on respondents.

The dissemination of statistical results is done in different ways and on different channels: as tables or indicators provided with text comments or graphs and maps, as printed documents or in electronic form, standard or tailored to specific customer needs.

Regular surveys of the BFS (selection):

• Census ( VZ )
• Business Census (BC )
• Country's consumer price index (CPI)
• Swiss Labour Force Survey ( SAKE )
• Swiss Earnings Structure Survey ( SLSE )

Census ( VZ )

The first federal census was carried out in March 1850 led by Federal Councillor Stefano Franscini. In addition to the survey of the population number of inhabitants was asked about gender, age, marital status, occupation, industry and religion. Between 1860 and 2000, a census was conducted every ten years each in December. From that every ten years they departed only in the census of 1888 ( as a basis for the revision of constituency boundaries preferred) and (later carried out due to the mobilization of the army in May 1940) in the census of 1941 from. The census in 2000 was last performed by the conventional method. As of 2010, there is a fundamental change: The census is conducted and evaluated annually and in a new form by the FSO. In order to relieve the population, the information is primarily drawn from the population registers and supplemented by sample surveys. New (about 5 percent ) of the population surveyed in writing or by telephone only a small part. The first deadline for the new census is 31 December 2010.

Legal basis

The public statistics has its basis in the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation. On 18 April 1999, the Swiss people took to the total revision of the Constitution, the new statistical products (Art. 65) to order and competencies of the statistics:

Regulated in more detail are the legal bases of the Switzerland government statistics in advance in the Federal Law of 9 October 1992., The Federal Statistics Act is a framework law. It formulates the tasks and organization of federal statistics and the basics of data collection, publications and services. In particular, it describes the principles of data protection. Major new features of the law of 1992, the coordination function of the Federal Statistical Office ( FSO) as the central statistics office in the federal government, the creation of a multi-annual statistical program for the overall planning of Swiss statistics and the establishment of the Commission for the federal statistics as an advisory body of the Federal Council ( representatives of the scientific, private sector, social partners, administrative units of the federal government, the cantons and municipalities).

Range of information

The information provided by the Federal Statistical Office ( FSO) includes:

• The statistics portal on the Internet
• Publications
• Spatial analysis in a geographic information system (GIS )
• Thematic mapping (eg Political Atlas of Switzerland )
• A telephone information service and a fax on demand around the clock ( national index of consumer prices)
• A public information center ( Espace public) in Neuchâtel with library and electronic information
• A specialized program for schools with graphics and teaching aids ( school forum )

The statistics portal enables rapid publication of important statistical results. New data is published daily. Links and downloads directly to the content. The portal allows evidence of new statistical results and activities via RSS to subscribe and as always be up to date.

Regarding the publications by the Federal Statistical Office ( FSO) issued Statistical Yearbook since 1891 the standard work of the Swiss statistics. It summarizes the main statistical results to the population, society, state, economy and environment of the country together. In addition to the yearbook published monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually many other printed publications of the BFS. A collection of files for download provides the Statistical Dictionary of Switzerland: Here you will find tables, graphs, maps, texts and whole publications on all topics of statistics. At certain topics and for specific target groups are information services available in the form of special applications, databases and collections of files. These are partly charged.

The information offer of federal statistics in 22 subject areas is divided content:

• Basics and Overviews
• Population
• Territory and environment
• Employment and income
• Economics
• Prices
• Industry, services
• Agriculture and Forestry
• Energy
• Construction and Housing
• Tourism
• Mobility and Transport
• Banks, insurance
• Social Security
• Health
• Education, Science
• Culture, Media, Information Society, Sports
• Policy
• Public Finance
• Crime, criminal
• Economic and social situation of the population
• Sustainable Development