Ontwikkelingen van de overheidsstatistiek op sociaal terrein

Samenvatting

It has been said recently that social statistics are far behind the progress made in economic statistics. This comes at a time when their importance is rapidly increasing. The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) has 1,500 full-time employees, 100 of them academicians. While the CBS has been able to do some work in statistical analysis, its efforts in this area have been severely limited due to lack of staff. A fair amount of attention has been focused recently on statistical synthesis, which attempts to implement macrosocial research and policy-making on a higher level. Several approaches have been taken to this problem. The Swedes are working on a system with data banks and computers. US efforts have concentrated on the use of social indicators, which are utilized to judge progress or regression in areas such as health and material development. The Netherlands has been fighting for an "integrated system of demographic, manpower and social statistics," similar to the system of national accounts of the un. Developments in one or all of these areas will lead to more opportunities to relate and compare material and will facilitate macroresearch. P. Tiersma.