User Satisfaction Surveys in Eurostat and in the European Statistical System2008 Conference on Quality in Official StatisticsRome, 8-11 July 2008Pierre Ecochard, Martina Hahn, Claudia Junker

pierre.ecochard@ec.europa.eu, martina.hahn@ec.europa.eu, claudia.junker@ec.europa.eu

Background

The LEG on quality and the CoP

32 surveys in the framework of the ESS Peer Review exercise

Commitment to a user orientation of European official statistics

Proposed methodology

Basis: IMF’s Data Review of Standards and Codes

Common questionnaire– Uses of official statistics– Assessment of the quality of the statistics

Target population: known users

High flexibility

Outcome of the surveys: stylized facts

17 NSIs used the proposed questionnaire 3 outsourced the survey Sample size varies from 61 to 8530

Users think statistics are presented in an easy-to-understand way

It is easy for them to access the data on the website Users of NSIs tend to think that the statistics are of a similar

quality to other European countries– With notable exceptions

Low comparability

How to improve the methodology:Questionnaire design Question should:

– be clear and unambiguous;– not make unreasonable assumptions about the

respondent

Improvement directions– More involvement of data collection experts– More customized questionnaires

How to improve the methodology:Data collection methodology Improving the representativity of the sample

– Known users or website/library users?

Increasing response rate– by proposing non-financial incentives– by improving questionnaires and their dissemination

How to improve the methodology:Harmonization of user satisfaction surveys Harmonize

– questionnaires– data collection methodologies

Benefits:– Obtain more comparable results– Share good practices and gain efficiency

Eurostat user satisfaction survey

Content of the questionnaire– Based on proposed version but adapted to Eurostat– Three blocks of questions

Implementation mode– Timing– Internet based survey for general users– E-mail based for known users– Comment boxes

Dissemination– Different results for two groups of users– Report placed on web-site– Improvement actions to follow-up

Eurostat user satisfaction survey

Interesting results– Most used: NA, employment statistics, demography statistics– Methodology and metadata in high demand for better understanding– Timeliness / Completeness assessments differ– General quality assessment– Main value added of Eurostat’s data– Main concerns

Ways to improve Eurostat user survey– More questions on quality dimensions– More / different questions on user support– More answering options for some questions– Discuss the target of the survey– Timing of and resources for the survey