1.     Four years ago the funds and responsibility for the central government statistics were decentralized to some 30 government agencies. Statistics Sweden retained the responsibility and appropriations for about 50 per cent of the statistics. Official statistics were defined as the statistics produced in certain specified domains, under the authority of an appointed agency. The official statistics produced by all agencies amount to the system of official statistics.

2.     Statistics Sweden has a duty to coordinate and supervise the Swedish system of official statistics. This means, among other things, that Statistics Sweden is to:

-     monitor the development of the official statistics and to issue rules and recommendations for the publishing and dissemination of official statistics;

-     develop and maintain basic nomenclatures and standards;

-     coordinate the participation in international statistical work;

-     develop basic statistical methods;

-     develop and maintain central statistical databases.

3.     The development and maintenance of new databases is meant to provide easier, faster and cheaper access to the information. Some users have complained that the traditional ways of disseminating information are not user-friendly and flexible. Also the metadata are not detailed enough, and the dissemination services provided are considered too expensive.

6.     All structured statistical data (macrodata, microdata, and structured metadata) are stored in relational databases. Unstructured metadata are stored in free-text databases. The macrodata - aggregated statistical data - are stored as multi-dimensional tables. Time-series data as well as cross-sectional data are covered by the same general concept; time is treated as one of the dimensions of a multi-dimensional table, in much the same way as cross-classifying categories. Values of statistical functions (counts, sums) of observed variables occur in the cells of the multi-dimensional table.

7.     Microdata are stored in relational databases, too, but these are not directly accessible via the Internet. All accessing of microdata is subject to the strict Swedish legislation concerning statistical confidentiality. However, within the framework of this legislation it is possible for users to get access to anonymized microdata. It is also possible for users to commission Statistics Sweden to process identified microdata for them, according to their specifications. Detailed metadata concerning microdata will be available via the Internet interface, and the use of SQL-Sybase will permit faster and cheaper access.

9.     Parts of the Swedish official statistics were available to Internet users already from the first day of operation. The contents come from the old AIXS system on the mainframe. Statistics Sweden, however, has taken the decision that all the official statistics that the organization is responsible for shall be made available via the new databases. Other agencies are encouraged to conform to the policy of Statistics Sweden.

10.     Statistics Sweden, like many other NSIs, is now replacing its mainframe with local networks. The conversion to new PC-based platforms using SQL-Sybase in client/server architecture is expected to be finalized by the end of 1999. It is important that the dissemination databases be well integrated in the production systems. Thus, the contents of the databases will be enlarged successively as the production systems migrate to new platforms.

11.     In the future the development of the following components can be foreseen:

-     translation of the contents into English

-     the successive enlargment of the contents

-     improved services according to user opinions

-     continued integration of the databases with the underlying production systems

-     new technical functions are to be considered, e.g. an interactive version of PC-AXIS and the use of GIS to retrieve data

-     development of standardized procedures for producing publications from the databases.

Guteland, G. & Malmborg, E. Our legacy to the future - using databases for better availability and documentation. Statistics Sweden 1996

Rosén, B. & Sundgren, B. Documentation for reuse of microdata from the surveys carried out by Statistics Sweden. Statistics Sweden 1991

Statistics Sweden, System, Management and Control. Statistics Sweden 1996