Milestones in national statistics

Short history before 1991

The history of national statistics goes back to 1754 when the first population census was implemented on the territory which today belongs to Slovenia. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1863 the first independent statistical service – the Royal Imperial Statistical Central Commission - was established in Vienna and covered most of the territory of Slovenia.

After the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Slovenia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The central statistical service of this state was the General National Statistics in Belgrade. Within its framework a special Statistical Department for Slovenia was operating between 1919 and 1924.

In 1944 Slovenian National Liberation Council set up the Office for Statistics of Slovenia. In 1945 Slovenian statistics become a part of the federal state administration. In 1956 the programme of statistical surveys for Slovenia was for the first time defined by the republican law. Statistical Office played the leading role in developing the Central Population Register (1970), the register of business subjects and their units (1976) and the Register of Territorial Units (1981). In 1981 the Social Information System Act in Slovenia opened the possibility to start building registers with uniform identification numbers for administrative and statistical purposes.

National statistics in independent Slovenia

In 1991 Slovenian Statistical Office was placed under the Ministry for Planning. In 1992 it became a member of the Conference of European Statisticians where in the same year the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics were adopted. Both contributed very much to the process of preparing new legislation in the field of national statistics in Slovenia. In 1994 the Common Declaration of Statistical Cooperation between SORS and Eurostat was signed and that enabled official participation of Slovenes in European statistical work. In 1995 the National Statistics Act was laid down by Parliament. With this act SORS became a professionally independent government service. It brought important elements of national statistics (e.g. mission, Statistical Council and statistical advisory committees, independence, confidentiality provisions, dissemination, obligation for reporting units, access to administrative sources at micro level with ID numbers, and the rules of budgeting).

National statistics and the European Union

In 1996 the Association Agreement between the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union was signed. In 1998 with the Accession Partnership Agreement and screening of statistical acquis communautaire Slovenian national statistics committed itself to achieve full compliance with the EU statistical legislation by 2002 at the latest. As a part of that process, Amendments to the National Statistics Act were adopted in 2001 in order to make the preparation and adoption of the programmes of statistical surveys more flexible, improve the statistical confidentiality, strengthen the SORS's independence and clearly define the role of authorised producers of national statistics.
After successful harmonisation with acquis communautaire, Slovenian national statistics became a part of the European Statistical System on 1 May 2004. The implemented acts and standards are respected. SORS actively participates in creating new and modernised statistical acquis as an equal member of various working groups and committees of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. SORS is an active member in many European and other international organisations.


National statistics and the OECD

Slovenia obtained the observer status in the OECD Committee on Statistics in June 2006. In this committee Slovenia was represented by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SORS). As part of the accession process for membership of the OECD in the field of statistics, in June 2008 the OECD Committee on Statistics called a meeting of all five candidate countries (Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia and Slovenia) at which the Statistical Requirements Compendium was presented. SORS took over the co-ordination role for the production of statistical data in Slovenia, except for data provided by the Bank of Slovenia, which also intensively co-operates with several OECD committees.

The Statistical Requirements Compendium determines in detail which OECD directorates in addition to the Statistics Directorate need statistical data on Slovenia, the method of centralised communication via a co-ordination point in the country, review of legal and institutional bases, and statistical areas that were later the subject of evaluation. SORS sent to the OECD extensive documentation that represents the basis of operation of national statistics in Slovenia and methodological materials for statistical surveys.

In October 2009 the OECD Committee on Statistics at a special meeting held in Busan, South Korea, accepted the report on the state of preparedness of the Slovenian national statistics to enter the OECD. The report was prepared by the peer reviewers who visited Slovenia in May 2009.

Slovenia officially became a member of the OECD on 21 July 2010.