News 26.9.2014
Data users are heard about changes to statistics
Statistics Finland will hear data users about the planned changes to the statistics and service selection before making any final decisions. The resources available for activity will decrease considerably in 2015, and it is necessary to reduce our operations. The objective is to adjust our activity to reducing resources in such a way that would cause as little inconvenience as possible to data users.
You can provide feedback on our plans through our Kaiku feedback channel. An online inquiry (in Finnish) can also be used for feedback and commenting. If necessary, we will arrange separate co-operation meetings with stakeholders.
Kindly provide us with your feedback by 13 October 2014. Final decisions will be made in the course of October 2014 and information on the decisions will be released in November.
Savings requirement is approximately EUR four million
There will be clearly less resources available for activity in 2015 than this year. The estimated savings requirement is approximately EUR four million. The entire activity of Statistics Finland will be analysed to attain these savings.
The situation is challenging as new data needs are also born as a result of globalisation, social inequality, structural change on society, and diverging regional development.
The already made intensification and reduction measures are not sufficient. Although in future, the intention is to achieve savings primarily by intensifying our activity and improving productivity further, we cannot avoid reductions in activity and statistics production as well. Intensification benefits are obtained by shifting increasingly to web-based data collection and by renewing the production systems of statistics, for example.
Discontinuations and reductions, as well as changes in the financing basis are being planned
The allocation of saving measures is in progress at the moment. The planned measures can be grouped as follows:
1. Statistics whose production will be discontinued completely. This can be based on identified overlaps in data production with other organisations, changes in EU regulations or low numbers of data users. These statistics include such as justice statistics, business statistics, productivity statistics and environmental statistics.
2. Statistics whose publication will be reduced. The reduction can concern either the extent of the data content or publication frequency, such as moving from regular annual publication to publishing every two years, part of the data are no longer produced, or the publication of preliminary data is discontinued.
3. Statistics whose production as general social statistics will be discontinued. These data may in future be produced as separate chargeable information products if there is demand for them.
4. Measures directed to other products and services. Some annually published compilations, such as the Environment Statistics Yearbook and the Transport and Communications Statistical Yearbook for Finland are planned to be discontinued. Data cannot be made openly available as planned; after opening the data by postal code area at the beginning of 2015 and the ongoing development projects on interface services, the next measures will have to wait for future financing solutions.
In addition, some data published now as separate statistics will be combined with other statistics. Then the data are not released as separate publications and tables but they will appear as part of larger data wholes. Further information will be given on these changes in connection with the release calendar for 2015 in December 2014.
More details about the allocation of the planned measures can be found at the end of this press release.
Alternative financing solutions are also possible
Final decisions on the measures will be made after users have been heard. We would appreciate your feedback on the reduction of activity both in general and on the measures planned for individual statistics or statistical wholes. In addition, all other feedback and proposals for development are most welcome.
At the same time, we are also looking for alternative financing solutions with which the continuation of statistics production for some statistics could be safeguarded. One possibility would be statistical services implemented with financing from outside Statistics Finland.
Press release of 19 September 2014
Inquiry form (in Finnish)
Kaiku feedback channel
List of statistics
Additional information
Timo Koskimäki, Deputy Director General of Statistics Production, tel. +358 29 551 3495
Jarmo Hyrkkö, Deputy Director General, tel. +358 29 551 3473
Hannele Orjala, Director, Business Statistics, tel. +358 29 551 3582
Leena Storgårds, Director, Economic and Environmental Statistics, tel. +358 29 551 2257
Riitta Harala, Director, Population and Social Statistics,tel. +358 29 551 3604
Statistics-specific listing of the planned measures
1. Statistics whose production is planned to be discontinued
The production of these statistics and publishing of data will be discontinued. To continue the production of these statistics requires that financing is found for the activity.
Justice statistics
- Decisions by administrative courts: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in September 2014).
- Decisions by courts of appeal: The last published data on the statistics concern the year 2013 (published in June 2014).
- Public legal aid: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in November 2014).
- Bankruptcies: Produced monthly, the last data to be published on bankruptcy proceedings instituted concern December 2014 (the release due in January 2015) and on bankruptcy proceedings closed in 2014 (the release due in June 2015).
- Decisions by the Supreme Administrative Court: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in September 2014).
- Decisions by the Supreme Court: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in October 2014).
- Decisions by district courts in criminal cases: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in June 2014).
- Decisions by district courts in civil cases: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in April 2014).
- Coercive measures: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in June 2014).
- Decisions by the prosecutor: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in May 2014).
- Enforcement matters: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (published in April 2014).
- Restructuring of debts: The last data concerning debt restructuring petitions in the fourth quarter of 2014 will be published in January 2015. Data on debt restructuring cases concluded in 2014 will be published in June 2015.
- Business restructuring proceedings: Data will not produced after the data concerning 2014 (the release for the fourth quarter in January 2015, the publication of data on concluded business restructuring cases in June 2015).
Other statistics
- Culture satellite accounts: The production of the statistics will be discontinued. The statistics were last published in 2013, when the released data concerned the years 2009 and 2011.
- Regional economic agricultural accounts: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in November 2014).
- Forest accounts: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in December 2014).
- Periodic survey, motor vehicle trade. The production of the statistics will be discontinued. The last data concerning 2010 were produced in 2012.
- Periodical survey, trade regional: The production of the statistics will be discontinued. The last data concerning 2009 were published in 2011.
- Periodical survey, wholesale trade: The production of the statistics will be discontinued. The last data concerning 2013 will be produced in 2015.
- Periodical survey, retail trade: The production of the statistics will be discontinued. The last data concerning 2012 were produced in 2014.
- Patenting: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in October 2014).
- Turnover estimate of large enterprises: Monthly statistics, the last data will be produced concerning December 2014 (the release due in January 2015).
- New orders in manufacturing: Monthly statistics, the last data will be produced concerning December 2014 (the release due in February 2015).
- Human resources of science and technology: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2012 (published in March 2014).
- Productivity surveys: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2013 (the release due in November 2014).
- Statistics on labour disputes: The statistics will not be produced after the data concerning the year 2012 (published in April 2014).
- Election statistics (Parliamentary elections, European Parliament elections, Presidential elections and Municipal elections): The statistics will not be produced from the beginning of 2015.
2. Statistics whose production is planned to be reduced
- Statistics on the finance of housing corporations: An essential reduction to the data content to be published (to be specified during autumn).
- Public sector environmental protection expenditure: The next data for the statistics will be produced in 2017 (data concerning the years 2013 to 2015), thus far data have been released yearly.
- Waste statistics: The statistics will in future be published every two years (now annual publication). In addition, the production of preliminary data will be discontinued.
- Greenhouse gases: The production and publishing of regional greenhouse gas emissions will be discontinued. Data concerning 2013 will no longer be produced by region.
- Turnover of trade: The monthly publication of preliminary data will be discontinued, the actual monthly statistics will remain in production.
- Turnover, service industries: In future, data will be released only quarterly (now monthly statistics).
- Index of turnover, industry: In future, data will be released only quarterly (now monthly statistics).
- Statistics on the finances of agricultural and forestry enterprises: An essential reduction to the data content to be published (to be specified during autumn).
- Index of purchase prices of the means of agricultural production: In future, no separate release will be made on the indices of January and July, only quarterly data will be published.
- Index of purchase prices of agricultural production: In future, no separate release will be made on the indices of January and July, only quarterly data will be published.
- Environmental taxes: The data content to be published will be reduced and all data will be published in one go in October to November, the partial release made in September will be discontinued.
3. The production of the following data now published as statistics will be discontinued as general social statistics. The data will in future be produced as chargeable information products that can be ordered separately.
- Cost index of road transport of goods
- Cost index of bus and motor-coach traffic
- Cost index for earth movers
- Cost index of forest machinery and vehicles
- Cost index of taxi and ambulance transport