Statistics Netherlands - New methods to correct data - European Statistical System (ESS)

Data used towards statistics production almost always contains errors. What can you do about them? On 6 March 2018, CBS methodologist Sander Scholtus obtained his doctorate cum laude with research on new methods to assess and correct data.

Reliable statistics

CBS uses, amongst others, data obtained from surveys as well as existing datasets, for instance from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration. In either case, such data may contain errors and these need to be corrected in order to produce reliable statistics. Scholtus explains how this can be done in two ways. ‘The first method is called editing: you detect the errors and correct them in the best possible way. This is preferably done automatically, as manual work is good but also time consuming. With the second method, you do not correct errors beforehand, but instead you estimate the impact of the errors on your statistic. In this way, you produce a model which you use to correct the entire statistic afterwards.’ In his doctorate research, Scholtus studied and further developed both methods.

For further information:

New methods to correct data Statistics Netherlands (CBS)

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