Glossary:Micro Data Linking (MDL)

<Micro Data Linking (MDL) is a statistical method for combining data available for individual entities. Entities may be enterprises or persons or, also, a combination of the two.

In official statistics, it has become a strategic approach for exploring new informative needs (for example, globalization and green transition) without increasing the statistical burden on respondents.

MDL may use traditional statistical sources - for example, data collected with surveys already conducted in the member states under the European regulation - but also new data collections, such as administrative sources available in the member states or, as a promising future perspective, the vast amount of big data emerging from private-sector data sources.

National Business Registers (BR) of enterprises represent the crucial statistical infrastructure for implementing MDL techniques in the European Structural Business Statistics. They provide the necessary linking keys that uniquely identify the unit of interest – the enterprise - in the various business domains of interest.

During the recent years, progresses have been made by launching a number of initiatives in the SBS domain involving various Member States. These initiatives have provided encouraging results to take the next steps in the direction of developing a permanent infrastructure in the field of business statistics by linking together statistics coming from different domains.

Overall, past experience on MDLs highlights the importance for coordination among countries to develop harmonized and comparable outputs. This also implies the need for sharing not only the final objectives of the specific project undertaken but also the organizational aspects of every single step.

Further information

• [Micro data linking — 2019 edition]
• [Micro data linking: Addressing new emerging topics without increasing the respondent burden]
• [Eurostat Micro data linking project in European business statistics European Commission – Eurostat Directorate G: Global business statistics]

Related concepts

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Statistical data

• [Microdata linking in business statistics]

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