Quality

Eurostat carries out controls and validation checks on raw data transmitted by the national statistical institutes. It ensures, for examples, that the ‘totals’ of a variable across different breakdowns are consistent. This is in line with the European statistics Code of Practice and the  ESS quality assurance framework.

For example, the total population of a country broken down by age should be equal to the total population of the country broken down by citizenship.  

Consistencies between the different breakdowns available for one variable are verified by cross validation. This validation includes checks of the plausibility of the most updated annual value and of two consecutive annual values. In addition, mathematical verification using standard deviation and weighted average are applied. 

Eurostat also asks data providers to supply specific metadata describing the definitions used and the quality of the statistical outputs to assess uniform standards.

For more general information on, please visit our dedicated webpage on data validation. 

Based on the detailed collected data, Eurostat computes a series of demographic statistics and indicators. These demographic indicators, which are regularly calculated, are undergoing several validation checks of the most updated annual value and the available time series. This validation includes checks of the plausibility of the most updated annual value and on two consecutive annual values. In addition, mathematical verification using standard deviation and weighted average are applied.