General presentation

        Official statistics in Romania are organized and coordinated by the National Institute of Statistics, specialized body of central general government, legal entity, subordinated to the Government financed from the State budget.
         In carrying out its activity, set out in the related legislation, compliant with the autonomy, confidentiality, transparency, relevance, proportionality, statistical deontology and cost-efficiency principles, the National Institute of Statistics has the following tasks:
a) draws up the system of statistical indicators, the computation methodologies and the specific technologies and standards to obtain these indicators;
b) organizes and manages the statistical surveys on economic and social phenomena and processes, by means of censuses, exhaustive or sample statistical surveys;
c) designs, prints and disseminates the statistical surveys questionnaires as well as the related guidelines to fill them in;
d) collects, processes and stores data and information with the view to ensure the statistical databases;
e) coordinates the drawing up of unitary classifications and nomenclatures of national interest in its field of activity;
f) designs, carries out and exploits the statistical information system;
g) draws up studies and analyses with a view to characterize economic and social developments;
h) carries out scientific research activities in statistical field;
i) informs public opinion, as well as public authorities on the economic and social developments of the country and provides the interested users with the achieved statistical indicators;
j) organizes and manages the subordinated units, sets out their tasks and functioning norms;
k) collaborates with ministries and other specialized bodies of central general government, as well as with public services in order to make compatible the official statistics system with the other information systems; supports these bodies with a view to ensure the training of the staff involved in statistical activity;
l) endorses the methodologies of statistical surveys organized by ministries, central institutions and other public services, in order to ensure the survey timeliness and the accuracy of statistical methods in use;
m) organizes vocational training in the statistical field for the staff of the institute, of its subordinated units and of other official statistics services and acts with a view to create a statistical culture at national level;
n) represents Romania within international relations in statistical field and cooperates with similar organizations of other countries, with specialized bodies of the United Nations and its agencies, with other international bodies;
o) assures the compatibility of national statistical system with statistical systems used by the United Nations, European Union and other international bodies according to the assumed commitments.

The National Institute of Statistics performs any other tasks assigned through legal acts, under its competence.

The National Institute of Statistics is headed by a President acting as secretary of state and by 3 Vice-Presidents acting as sub-secretaries of state; one of the Vice-Presidents is directly involved in European Affairs issues, the second directly coordinates economic and social statistical activities, while the third directly coordinates the IT activities and statistical infrastructure issues. The Vice-President coordinating statistical matters is, in compliance with specific legislation, the deputy of the NIS President.

The President performs the following general tasks in his field of activity:
a) organizes, coordinates and controls the application of laws, Government ordinances and decisions, of orders and instructions issued in accordance with legal stipulations, observing the authority framework and the principle of local autonomy of public institutions and of economic units;
b) initiates and endorses the draft laws, Government ordinances and decisions, under the conditions set up by the methodology approved by the Government;
c) acts for implementing the National Institute of Statistics own strategy, integrated in the Government economic and social development strategy;
d) substantiates and make up proposals for the yearly budget, afterwards submitted to the Government for approval;
e) keeps track of the investments in the National Institute of Statistics, based on the approved budget;
f) represents the state interests in various international organizations and bodies, according to the agreements and conventions in which Romania is part and to other set up agreements, and develops collaboration relationships with similar organizations from other states whose field of activity is of concern;
g) keeps track of the implementation of international agreements and conventions in which Romania is part and takes measures to carry out the conditions for the integration into European structures and into other international bodies;
h) collaborates with specialized tertiary education institutions for the vocational training of the staff within system of official statistics.

The NIS President is member by right in the National Statistical Council.

The general secretary of the National Institute of Statistics – high civil servant – is subordinated to the president.

Under the subordination of the National Institute of Statistics function, as public institutions with legal personality, the regional statistical directorates and the county statistical directorates, corresponding to the territorial structure of Romania, financed entirely from the state budget, through the budget of the National Institute of Statistics.

In order to assure the objectivity, transparency and scientific nature of methodologies, indicators, nomenclatures and classifications used in the statistical activity, the National Statistical Council is functioning besides the National Institute of Statistics, as a consulting body mainly charged with the analysis and endorsement of the national statistical system development strategy, of the National Institute of Statistics’ activity reports and of the Annual National Statistical Programme.

The main objectives of NIS:

• producing timely statistical information necessary for the decision-makers of the economic and social strategy;
• assimilating the statistical indicators specific to market economy and implementing the survey and compilation methodologies in compliance with the international standards and practice;
• developing high quality statistics to complete traditional statistics;
• extending and diversifying data dissemination means;
• cooperating with other national statistical institutes in view to develop a sustainable statistical system, running statistical projects aimed to ensuring statistical data comparability with those of other countries and the compliance with the EU standards.

BRIEF HISTORY

July 12, 1859 - The ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza signed The Ordinance on the setting up of Central Administrative Statistics Office, marking the birth of official statistics in Romania. The names of two famous Romanian economists of the XIX-th century, Dionisie Pop Marțian and Ion Ionescu de la Brad are also related to this very moment.

Official statistics is one of the first public institutions created in Romania after the Union and one of oldest statistical offices in Europe.

I. Start and confirmation (1859-1877)

Since the very beginning, without having the necessary material resources, sufficient and specialized staff, the statistical institution ventured and succeeded to finalise far-reaching actions. The following were achieved:

· Population Census (1859-1860)
· Industrial Establishments Census (1863), the first national survey of an European Country
· Publication of the series "Statistical and Economic Annals (1860)"
· Romania was among the most active participants in international statistical congresses in London, Berlin, Florence and the Hague

II. Contributions to economic and social consolidation of Romania after gaining the state independence (1877-1914)

In keeping with the pathfinder undertakings, official statistics is one of the main pillars of the Romanian state in the period of its consolidation, through the substantial contribution of statistical information necessary to take accurate decisions for the country development. The following were achieved:

- Population Censuses of 1899 and 1912
- Publication System was enriched with the following series:
      Romanian Statistical Bulletin (1892)
      Demographic Review (1892)
      Statistical Yearbook of Romania (1909)
- Higher statistical education was created, within the Academy of High Commercial and Social Studies (1913), today the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

III. Romanian statistical school in vanguards of international statistics (1918-1945)

In the interwar period, Romanian official statistics imposed, through its great personalities, its status of a prestigious school at international level. These were the years when the institution took advantage of the creative activity of famous personalities: Dimitrie Gusti, Octav Onicescu, Grigore Moisil, Gheorghe Mihoc, Sabin Manuilă, Anton Golopenția etc.

Benchmarks:

· Romanian Agriculture Atlas (1929)
· General Population Census of Romania (1930)
· General Census of Romania (1941), with the inventory of industrial enterprises in focus
· Agriculture Census (1941), the first systematic work of this type carried out in our country
· Extension of sample surveys to almost all fields of national economy
· Setting up the Statistical School (1930) lately becoming the Statistical Institute of Bucharest University (1941)

IV. Preserving the identity and professional probity (1946-1989)

Despite political pressures during the communist regime, Romanian statisticians continued to provide the continuity of statistical data and series and therefore to preserve the Romanian official statistics reliability, in spite of totalitarian regime interferences aiming at convenient and trimmed presentation of some statistical information. Among the efforts made to safeguard the identity of statistical science and of its civil servants professional probity, there are well known the contributions of Mihail Levente and Mircea Biji, of other remarkable specialists, to the following:

· Carrying out very complex statistical works
   Population and Housing Census (1966 and 1977)
   The first balance of economic branches connections
· Upgrading to electronic data processing
· Starting the collaboration with UN Statistical Direction

V.Starting with December 1989, the Romanian official statistics contributed, through its data and information, as result of improved working tools and methodologies, to the support of national efforts aimed at carrying out certain structural reforms and at reaching economic and social development, modernization of the Romanian society. Official statistics ensure the information support for our country integration in the EU structures and for quickly adapting to the modern knowledge-based economy. In this sense:

· The capacity of investigating the economic and social evolution in the Romanian society increased.
· The statistical indicators system and specific methodologies improved, closely connected to the evolution of economic and social phenomena and processes and in compliance with the european legislation.
· The national statistical data supply increased and consolidated.
· The dissemination means diversified and modernized.
· The database at territorial level, as well as the system of indicators at regional and county level considerably extended.
· Wide and complex economic and social investigations, surveys and researches were accomplished, including:
       Population and Housing Census (1992, 2002, 2011)
       General Agriculture Census (2002-2003)
· The following principles have been and still are promoted autonomy, confidentiality, transparency, relevance, proportionality and deontology of the National Institute of Statistics activity, comparability and compatibility of national statistical information with European statistics.
· The collaboration with the European Union Statistical Office (Eurostat) and with other European statistical offices developed, especially after signing in 1994 two bilateral and multilateral common declarations, as well as with UNO specialized bodies.

The name of the official statistical institution was subject to several changes:

State General Statistical Directorate – 1892
State General Statistical Institute – 1925
Central Statistical Institute – 1936
Central Statistical Directorate – 1951
National Commission for Statistics – 1989
National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies – 1998
National Institute of Statistics – 2001