Accuracy and reliability
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Population and Education, Social StatisticsEmilie Elisabeth Milan Nielsen
+45 23 63 56 72
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The administrative systems that are the basis for the statistics are used by the institutions for their own daily administration of the students and also for the payment of different economic grants. Correct registers are therefore necessary for the economy of the institutions and contributes to an expected high quality of the data source. However, occasional errors will almost always occur. These are almost always fixed before next year's publication of data.
Overall accuracy
The precision of the statistics is high, because data is taken directly from the administrative systems of the educational institutions. Uncertainty arises when the institutions register certain students or educations wrong. When this is discovered, the error is fixed before next year's publication of data. In more specific groups and educations the uncertainty might be higher.
Sampling error
Not relevant for these statistics, since it is a total counting.
Non-sampling error
Coverage errors can be persons not registered in the statistics. Measurement errors and missing records can occur due to wrong registrations from the institutions. When dates overlap for a student, the student usually is registered as finished on the first education on the date where he is registered to begin on the next education.
Quality management
Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on the organisation and management of quality set out in the Code of Practice for European Statistics and the accompanying implementation model, the Quality Assurance Framework. Read more about these on the page Quality in official statistics.
Quality management is supported by common principles, guidelines and managerial responsibility for quality in statistical products and processes. The aim is to ensure a systematic and consistent approach to quality across the entire statistical production.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance at Statistics Denmark is integrated into the statistical production processes and is carried out in accordance with the principles of the Code of Practice for European Statistics. Read more on the page Quality in official statistics.
Quality assurance includes the continuous use of standardised procedures, documentation in line with international standards and internal controls related to data collection, data processing and dissemination. Experience gained from production is continuously used to identify needs for adjustments and improvements.
Quality assessment
The strength of the statistics is that data are collected from the institutions' administrative registers, which the institutions use for the administration of their students. Errors in the administrative registers are however unavoidable.
Data revision - policy
Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.
Data revision practice
The institutions have the possibility of updating backwards in time when reporting data. When that happens, data from previous years are revised.