How the data for research are collected
One of the primary tasks of official statistics, as provided for in the Law, is the collection and the gathering of statistical data:
- from and on entities of the national economy and their activities and
- from and on natural person on their physical life and situation
- from all available sources, as defined in detail in the Program of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics or in separate laws, among other things,
- from full research, general censuses,
- from the research conducted with methods of representation,
- from administrative sources.
The Program of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics is a list setting out the thematic , subject and subjective scope and related duties.
Techniques used for transferring statistical data:
- Internet (Reporting Portal, e-mail)
- face-to-face interview (using paper form or CAPI - interview recorded on a portable electronic device),
- phone interview (traditional or CATI - phone interview assisted by a computer program).
Since 2000, Questionnaire Surveys Divisions in all Statistical Offices have been existing dealing with the implementation of social and agricultural statistical research through a network of field pollsters.
They carry out the research:
- continuous,
- cyclic,
- one-time
- and research commissioned and on individual order, not covered by the Program of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics.
Social surveys are voluntary, conducted using sampling.
Price quotations and agricultural surveys are obligatory, and in the case of this research sampling is purposeful.
Research in the Śląskie Voivodship in 2014 is conducted by 95 field pollsters:
- 23 in Katowice,
- 17 in the Branch Office in Bielsko-Biała,
- 16 in the Branch Office in Bytom,
- 12 in the Branch Office in Częstochowa,
- 13 in the Branch Office in Rybnik,
- 14 in the Branch Office in Sosnowiec.
In the case of a large load of research there is a possibility of involvement of employees performing their work on a daily basis in the Office (the so-called changing pollsters).
On 1 January 2009, the Central Statistical Office introduced as valid a safe form of electronic transmission of statistical data. In accordance with the Program of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics entities of the national economy, for which the reporting obligation was established, shall transmit the data in an electronic form to the REPORTING PORTAL of the CSO. The portal makes available applications that allow you to fill in the on-line application form. Signing in to the reporting portal of CSO is possible through previously activated account. For selected reports at http://form.stat.gov.pl/formularze/formularze.htm applications off-line will also be made available that give you the opportunity to fill out reports on your computer, without the need for a direct connection to the Internet, and then send them electronically to official statistics.
- Censuses
Both the National Population and Housing Census, as well as the Agricultural Census are obligatory research, carried out on the basis of the Census Acts. They are at the same time, the greatest statistical undertakings which are taken not only in Poland but all over the world. The implementation of such projects requires full mobilization, both of the society and the State.
National Census provides the most detailed information on population, its territorial distribution, socio-demographic and professional structure , as well as socio-economic characteristics of households and families and their housing conditions and resources at all levels of territorial division of the country: national, regional and local.
Agricultural Census has been carried out in order to provide information in the field of agriculture in the scope of general characteristics of an agricultural holding, land use, sown area and livestock and tractors, agricultural machinery and equipment, use of fertilizers, as well as persons working on the farm, the structure of the farm income, use of the support schemes for agriculture and methods of agricultural production (the impact of agriculture on the environment).
- Administrative sources
Government Administration bodies and local self-government units, other government agencies, the authorities who run official registers and the National Bank of Poland shall forward to the services of the official statistics free of charge collected administrative data in the scope, form and within the time limits defined each time within the Program of Statistical Surveys of Official Statistics, in particular in the form of extracts from the registers, copies: data sets, collected declarations, documents and other official recording forms, the results of measurements, environmental monitoring data and provide data from databases of information systems.
Collections of administrative data are derived from central systems, among other things: the Ministry of Finance/tax offices-an information system operated by the tax authorities; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration - collection of PESEL (Universal Electronic System for Registration of the Population) and vehicle records; the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture; the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund; the National Health Fund - A Central List of Insured Persons; the Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection; the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography - State Register of borders and surface of the units of territorial division of the country, and orthophoto maps of the Polish area; and distributed: Marshal's Offices - Databases of Topographic Objects; powiat starosts -land records and buildings and information systems of State Labour Office; offices of gminas - real estate tax records and communal registration sets.