Declaration on quality

Following the example of the European Statistical System, and in accordance with the mission and vision and quality policy, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia strives at complete harmonization of statistical production with the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP).

European Statistics Code of Practice has been adopted by the European Statistical System Committee in 2005. The statistical bodies, involving the Commission (Eurostat), national statistical offices and other national institutions responsible for production and dissemination of European statistics, together with the governments, ministries and European Council, have obliged to implement this Code.

Mission of the official statistics 

“The basic mission of official statistics means providing of relevant, impartial, reliable, timely and internationally comparable statistical indicators. The coordinated activities of authorized producers of official statistics and their active participation in international statistical cooperation shall ensure that published official statistics satisfies the needs of decision makers, researchers and other users, thus serving as the basis for monitoring and directing policies in the area of economy and society, as well as the policies concerning the process of accessing of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union. Collecting, processing and disseminating of the statistical data means necessary applying of the methodological and organizational knowledge, statistical standards, modern technology, protection of statistical confidentiality, optimal resources usage, non – excessive burden of respondents and data availability to all users under the equal conditions.’“

Vision and values of official statistics 

“System of official statistics of the Republic of Serbia, by strengthening expert and infrastructural capacities and adopting and applying the best statistical practices should reach the high level of harmonization with international statistical standards, involving the high level of quality of the published statistical data and gained trust of respondents and users.“

Principles of Code of Practice, together with principles of overall quality management present mutual frame for the quality of the European Statistical System.

System of quality management of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia is based on European Statistics Code of Practice and is completely adjusted to statistical needs since quality of statistical processes has been systematically improved, as well as quality of final results, i.e. data and users’ providing services. 

Statistical activities are directed to monitoring of the following principle quality features:

1. Relevance is the level at which statistical results satisfy current and potential users’ needs.

2. Accuracy and reliability denotes, in statistical sense, the level at which calculated values or estimates are close to exact or accurate levels.

3. Timeliness and punctuality

Timeliness – the information reflects the length of the time period between availability and the event or phenomena described. 

Punctuality – refers to time period between the actual date of releasing of the statistical results and the previously announced date. 

4. Coherence and comparability

Coherence of the statistical results means their adequacy for reliable combining in various ways and for different needs.

Comparability means thatstatistical results are mutually harmonized in the sense of contents, terminology and periodicity, adjusted to internationally accepted concepts, classifications, definitions and methods, both in time and among regions and countries.

5. Accessibility and clarity

Accessibility refers to physical conditions on which users can access the data: where they should go, how they should order, time of delivery, clear pricing policy, availability of micro and macro data, various forms, etc.

Clarity relates to information surrounding of the data, that is, whether the data are accompanied with the appropriate metadata, illustrations, such as graphs and maps; moreover, it means whether the information on data quality is available (including also limitations of data usage), as well as additional support requested by user and provided by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.