Affiliations: Statistics Netherlands, Den Haag, The
Netherlands | VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
Note: [] Corresponding author: Bart F.M. Bakker, Statistics Netherlands,
P.O. Box 24500, 2490 HA Den Haag, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 703375707; Fax:
+31 703877429; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: More and more countries are using register data to replace
traditional Censuses. Moreover, official statistics as well as research are
increasingly based on register data or combinations of survey and register
data. Register-based statistics offer wonderful new opportunities. At the same
time, they require a new approach to how data are processed and managed. In
this article, we present the System of social statistical datasets (SSD), a
system of interlinked and standardized registers and surveys. All production
processes within Statistics Netherlands that pertain to social or spatial
statistics converge in the SSD, which thus constitutes a shared output-oriented
system. The SSD contains a wealth of information on persons, households, jobs,
benefits, pensions, education, hospitalizations, crime reports, dwellings,
vehicles and more. In the Netherlands it is the most important source for
official social statistics and, because the data are available on request by
means of remote access, also very popular in the social sciences. This article
describes the contents of the SSD as well as the underlying process and
organization, and demonstrates its possibilities.
Keywords: Registers, administrative data, data processing, micro-integration
