About public statistics – BackgroundStefano Franscini

It is thanks to Federal Councillor Stefano Franscini (1796-1857) that a Census has been held in Switzerland every 10 years since 1850. In fact, Franscini actually conducted the first Census himself. When the first raw data had been collected, Parliament and Federal Council reneged on payment. Because he no longer had the money to pay for it, Franscini evaluated the data himself, with his private secretary helping him with the arithmetic. It is also thanks to Federal Councillor Franscini's farsightedness that Switzerland now has a collective memory documenting the spatial, social and economic development of the Swiss Confederation over the last 150 years.

The last full census (of this type) gave rise to numerous complaints by many municipalities, cities and cantons because of the enormous costs involved. Many proposals were made both inside and outside parliament, with the result that the Bundesrat – the Federal Council – was instructed to prepare the legislation required to enable the census of 2010 to be carried out on the basis of harmonised registers. Not only will the data produced by the new system be more up-to-date and differentiated according to topic, but they will be published more frequently and the costs will be much reduced.

Hence the pioneering work of Bundesrat (Member of Federal Council) Stefano Franscini will be continued using the methods of the 21st century: Not only the decision makers in politics, business and society but also the public in general will be supplied continuously with current information on the condition of and changes in the Switzerland of today.