Article 3 - Definitions

‘statistics’ means quantitative and qualitative, aggregated and representative information characterising a collective phenomenon in a considered population;

‘development’ means the activities aiming at setting up, strengthening and improving the statistical methods, standards and procedures used for the production and dissemination of statistics as well as at designing new statistics and indicators;

‘production’ means all the activities related to the collection, storage, processing, and analysis necessary for compiling statistics;

‘dissemination’ means the activity of making statistics and statistical analysis accessible to users;

‘data’ means any digital or non-digital representation of acts, facts or information and any compilation of such acts, facts or information on the units observed;

‘metadata’ means any information that defines and describes data and processes;

‘data holder’ means a legal or natural person or any other entity that has the right, in accordance with applicable Union or national law, and the ability to manage and make available data obtained as a result of their activity;

‘data collection’ means surveys and all other methods of deriving information from different sources, including administrative sources;

‘data source’ means a source providing data that is relevant and necessary, in itself or in combination with data from other sources, for the development and production of statistics, including surveys, censuses, administrative data or data made available by data holders on request;

‘data access’ means the processing by a national statistical institute or other national authorities or by the Commission (Eurostat) of data that have been provided or made available by a data holder, in accordance with specific technical, legal or organisational requirements;

‘statistical unit’ means the basic observation unit, namely a natural person, a household, an economic operator and other undertakings, referred to by the data;

‘confidential data’ means data which allow statistical units to be identified, either directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information. To determine whether a statistical unit is identifiable, account shall be taken of all relevant means that might reasonably be used by a third party to identify the statistical unit;

‘use for statistical purposes’ means the exclusive use for the development, production and dissemination of statistical results and analyses by statistical authorities, including for research and scientific activities, or the establishment of sampling frames;

‘direct identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit from its name or address, or from a publicly accessible identification number;

‘indirect identification’ means the identification of a statistical unit by any other means than by way of direct identification;

‘officials of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the officials of the Communities, within the meaning of Article 1 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority;

‘other staff of the Commission (Eurostat)’ means the servants of the Communities, within the meaning of Articles 2 to 5 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, working at the Community statistical authority.