Press release

Multi-annual programme for 2024-2027 Federal Council adopts the multi-annual programme for federal statistics 2024-2027

24.01.2024 - On 24 January 2024, the Federal Council adopted the federal government's official statistics programme for the coming years. It provides an overview of the statistical objectives, priorities and activities. At the centre of the eighth multi-annual programme is the contribution to the digital transformation of the Federal Administration.

Federal statistics comprises all federal agencies responsible for official statistics. It compiles well-founded statistical information based on reliable data and modern methods. Society, politics and the economy depend on federal statistics for their decision-making. The requirements made of official statistics in Switzerland are also changing due to technological progress and the increasing demands of users. The multi-annual programme provides an overview of the current services of the Federal Statistical Office and what it aims to do during the next legislative period to adapt its products to changing needs and further improve the use of existing data.

Innovative but attached to key values

Federal statistics products should continue to be up-to-date, independent, relevant and easily accessible. At the same time, statistics should continue to develop and make use of technological progress. It is therefore important to fully utilise the potential of new data collection and analysis methods - for example with the help of artificial intelligence - for modern statistical production.

In the coming years it will also be important to extend the harmonisation of metadata begun in the last programme to the federal government's data sets. This will make it easier for statistics producers and other administrations to find the data sets of all offices and reuse them for statistical and research purposes. This is an important prerequisite for the digital transformation of the Federal Administration. Thanks to the reuse of data, businesses and private individuals have to take part in surveys less often and statistics production overall can become more efficient.

As well as extending data's possible uses, at the same time the further development of data security is necessary, in particular protection against information leaks, data abuse and cyber-attacks. Furthermore, federal statistics is committed to ensuring the innovative, secure and appropriate use of its data, while respecting the key values of federal statistics: scientific nature, transparency and professional independence. These values ensure that qualified opinions can be formed and well-founded decisions made based on statistical findings, whether in politics, the economy or civil society.