At its meeting on May 5, the Council of Ministers endorsed the Report on Implementation of the National Statistical Programme and the Activity of the NSI in 2021 and the National Statistical Programme for 2022.
The main topics in the NSI Report are: the implementation of the 18th Population and Housing Census in 2021; the Commitment on Confidence endorsed by the Council of Ministers, which is considered by the EC as a guarantee for independence of the official statistics; the coordination by NSI of the activities of the Working Group on Exchange of Statistical Data and Economic Information of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation; the activities undertaken in 2021 for the development and extension of a number of NSI information systems enabling online submission of data by the respondents and the shortening of the deadlines for production and dissemination of statistical information.
The endorsed report focuses on the achieved results in the implementation of the horizontal goals set in the Strategy for the development of the National Statistical System of the Republic of Bulgaria for the 2021 - 2027 period, as well as the completion of the activities on the production of statistical information on thematic fields. Essential results are markedly related to an increase in the quality of the statistical information, an improvement in its dissemination and a decrease in the respondents’ burden by means of introducing e-questionnaires and elaborating web-based applications for statistical surveys in various statistical domains.
In 2021, the National Statistical Institute conducted 261 statistical surveys, and the bodies of statistics - 55.
The National Statistical Programme for 2022 contains a plan for conducting the statistical surveys by the National Statistical Institute and the bodies of statistics. The new surveys and activities included in the National Programme for 2022 are related to the users’ needs and to the priorities set in the European Annual Statistical Programme for 2022.
The new surveys and activities in the NSP 2022 are: data for prevention of the illegal entrance and residence of citizens of third countries; adult education survey (AES) 2022; energy balances - ‘energy delivery’ section; industry energy consumption; market indicators for electric energy and natural gas; microdata and metadata exchange with EU Member States; administrative and territorial division of the Republic of Bulgaria; elaboration of a survey for the balance of the country’s territory by administrative and territorial units; exhibition with infographics ‘Census 2021’; digital publications and infographics; number of the received, approved and paid claims by employers for compensation of workers and employees for whom stopping of activity or reduced working time was introduced.
During this year, NSI will go on its work on Census 2021. The data of the largest scale statistical survey will be processed and a Time Budget Survey will be conducted, which will give important information for the time allocation of the Bulgarians.
The development of the methodology, production and dissemination of statistical information in the National Statistical System is carried out based on adopted universal European standards and harmonized methods.
The funds for the implementation of the National Statistical Programme in 2022 are allocated in the budgets of NSI and the bodies of statistics, which will carry out the planned activities.