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Demokratiskolan
The Data & statistics card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 17 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaThe state & public administration
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence2 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
The state & public administration

Data & statistics

Analysing data & shaping insights to help govern

How many of us live here, what do we earn, how is the school doing? Statistics are society's mirror, and they steer more than you might think: equalisation systems, state grants and political decisions all rest on the numbers. Sweden has kept population statistics since the 1700s, and today the state handles most of it with registers rather than surveys.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · local data & reporting · approx 10 %
  • Region · care data & analysis · approx 5 %
  • State · scb & official statistics · approx 65 %
  • EU · requirements via eurostat · approx 20 %

The state owns the official statistics through Statistics Sweden (SCB), and the EU increasingly decides what has to be measured. The general election shapes the frame.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe data source
The regionThe numbers of healthcare
Central governmentThe statistics agency · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipality's administrations and civil servants.
The regions' analysis departments and the quality registers of healthcare.
Statistics Sweden (SCB) coordinates. Several agencies are responsible for official statistics in their own areas.
What do they decide?
Report figures on schools, care and finances, and use the statistics to plan their activities.
Data on waiting times, treatments and health: the basis for where the money for care does the most good.
Population, economy, elections and incomes: the official statistics that decisions and research rest on.
Where are decisions made?
In the operational systems and in the municipality's annual report, an official document.
In the region's follow-ups and in national comparisons of healthcare.
Openly on scb.se. Official statistics must by law be available to everyone.
Who pays?
The municipal tax, as part of the administration's work.
The regional tax.
The central government budget.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Request the municipality's statistics, compare your municipality with others in open databases.
Regional election Look at the open comparisons of healthcare ahead of the regional election.
General election Respond to SCB's surveys when you are selected, use open data.
EUEU regulations govern which statistics Sweden must produce and report to Eurostat, the EU's statistics office. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A number becomes a basis for decisions
  1. EU

    The EU orders comparability

    Eurostat requires all member states to measure the same things in the same way. That means unemployment or inflation in Sweden can be compared with the rest of Europe.

  2. State

    The registers do the work

    When you move, change jobs or have a child, the population register and other registers are updated. SCB builds most of its statistics on the registers instead of large surveys.

    Point of influence

    Statistics begin with you: a correct entry in the population register and answers to SCB's sample surveys make the numbers true.

  3. State

    SCB counts and publishes

    The population statistics per municipality are published openly and free of charge, while data at the individual level is protected by confidentiality.

  4. StateMunicipality

    The numbers become money

    Population and age structure govern the equalisation system and the state grants. More children in the municipality means more money for schools, automatically.

  5. Municipality

    The municipality plans around the curves

    The population forecast decides whether a new preschool is built or a unit is closed. The forecast is the basis for the comprehensive plan and the budget.

    Point of influence

    The comprehensive plan, where the forecasts become building plans, always goes out for open public consultation (samråd).

  6. Your everyday life

    The school was there before the class

    The preschool on the block opened just as the cohort of children needed it. Someone saw it in the statistics five years earlier.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which figure about your municipality would you want to see, and does it perhaps already exist?

  2. How much should the state know about us for the statistics to be good?

  3. Who gains from statistics being open to everyone, and who might lose from it?

  4. Do you trust official statistics more or less than ten years ago, and why?

  5. What ought to be measured in society that is not measured today?

Glossary

Officiell statistik
Statistics that agencies are required by law to produce and keep available to everyone.
Registerdata
Data that already exists at agencies and is reused for statistics, instead of new surveys.
Kolada
An open database where you can compare all municipalities and regions on thousands of key figures.
Eurostat
The EU's statistics office, which gathers comparable statistics from all member states.
Mikrodata
Data at the individual level, protected by confidentiality but available for research under strict conditions.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.