Statistics Korea has been reorganized into the National Data Office. This change, which elevates its status from an agency under the Ministry of Economy and Finance to an independent body under the prime minister, must not amount to a mere signboard swap. As data emerges as the core asset shaping decision-making across government, industry, and society, this could be an inflection point to leap into the ranks of a data powerhouse through innovation in national data governance. What path should the National Data Office take to get there? We examine this through "the future of national statistics." [Editor's note]
There are countries in the world that can obtain population and housing census statistics without field surveys. Nordic countries such as Denmark and Sweden were the first to make this a reality, and latercomers like the United Kingdom and the United States also quickly established legal foundations. The international statistical community classifies countries capable of conducting such administrative data–based censuses as "administrative advanced nations" with high-quality data.
What these countries have in common is that they granted strong authority to their statistics offices so administrative data can be freely linked and used. Korea, with its robust resident registration system and e-government experience, has ample potential to join the ranks of data-advanced nations.
However, the current framework makes it difficult to link and use data across ministries and agencies, hindering the use of administrative data in compiling statistics. According to government officials on the 5th, the government is working to revise the laws and regulations needed to operate the National Data Office's data regime, which launched on the 1st. This moment is seen as a turning point to overcome these hurdles.
◇ Data innovation starts with "strong authority"
A census is a basic national statistical survey conducted to determine the size and characteristics of all citizens and foreign nationals, and of dwellings. The traditional census is conducted solely through field surveys, while producing it with 100% administrative data is called a "full register-based census." A method that combines administrative data with field surveys is a "combined census."
Introducing a register-based census requires strong authority to secure data. Denmark, the first to realize a register-based census, enacted a Statistics Act in 1966 for a "nationwide registration-based system." Through this, Statistics Denmark, which had been merely a government department, was granted full authority to access, coordinate, and manage all administrative registers and personal identifiers held by public institutions.
In 1968, it established the Central Person Register (CPR) and, by creating the legal and technical infrastructure to link all administrative databases—such as those for taxes, education, health, and employment—around it, achieved the world's first "surveyless census" in 1981.
Sweden developed a similar model. It built a central population registration system in 1967 and, since 1990, has tracked changes in income, employment, and welfare for more than 30 years through the longitudinal databases (LISA) that integrate labor and health data. Statistics Sweden established infrastructure that allows researchers to easily find and use data through its remote access system "MONA" and its register data tool "RUT."
This framework has made it possible to obtain high-quality data without respondent burden or field survey expense. It is also used as a system that allows the government to quickly reflect the latest data from the policy design stage.
Although later than the Nordic countries, the United States and the United Kingdom—traditional powerhouses of sample surveys—have recently laid the groundwork to link and use administrative data as they face declining response rates.
The United Kingdom, amid strong personal data protection regulations, found it difficult to directly link administrative data. It therefore adopted a model with a trusted third party (TTP) that separates personal information from research data. Researchers receive and use only de-identified data, while personal information is controlled by the third party. This reduced resistance to data sharing among public institutions and enabled researchers to use data safely.
The United States established an institutional foundation with the Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. The Census Bureau assigns a Protected Identification Key (PIK) based on taxpayer IDs and Social Security numbers to link administrative and survey data, and researchers can analyze data only at secure Federal Statistical Research Data Centers (FSRDCs).
◇ Korea stuck at a "combined census" due to legal constraints… potential is at "Nordic" level
Since 2015, Korea has adopted a "combined census" method that conducts a sample survey once every five years. This was enabled by the 2007 revision of the Statistics Act, which provided a legal basis for the "use of administrative data for statistical compilation."
Before its elevation, the National Data Office, then Statistics Korea, had built capabilities since 2012 by developing linked statistics using administrative data—such as national pension, employment insurance, corporate tax, and earned income payment statements—resulting in the Administrative Statistics on Wage and Salaried Jobs and the Business Dynamics Administrative Statistics. It has continued to develop new statistics such as the "parental leave statistics" and the "income mobility statistics."
However, a full transition to a register-based census remains distant because the current laws and systems do not provide support. To craft appropriate responses to increasingly complex economic and social issues, a framework that allows free use of data is needed, but above all, Statistics Korea's access rights to ministries and agencies holding administrative data are extremely limited.
Data provision is often refused on grounds of personal data protection or agency-specific confidentiality clauses, making it difficult to produce comprehensive, linked statistics needed for policy. In particular, National Tax Service data are restricted by confidentiality and a ban on nonresearch uses under the Framework Act on National Taxes, while the Personal Information Protection Act prohibits the use of resident registration numbers in the process of combining pseudonymized data, reducing the efficiency of data linkage.
Another problem is that standards for managing and operating data differ across public institutions, complicating linkage. In many cases, even metadata to identify the existence and structure of data are not properly provided. There is also a shortage of specialists and dedicated organizations to systematically manage administrative data, making it difficult to respond swiftly to demand for new statistics or policy research, critics say.
Yu Jong-seong, head of the Korea Inequality Research Lab at Yonsei University and visiting professor in public administration, has pointed out these issues for years in papers such as "The current status of and improvement measures for linking and using administrative data (2023)."
Yu emphasizes above all that the National Data Office must secure the legal authority to take the lead in collecting administrative data and providing linkage services. He argues that the confidentiality clause under the Framework Act on National Taxes should be revised to include an exception allowing the provision of pseudonymized data for public-interest research, and that the Personal Information Protection Act should also be supplemented to enable safe data linkage using resident registration numbers.
He also cited as urgent tasks building nationwide social security administrative data as panel data, as in the Nordic countries, to underpin evidence-based policy; appointing data stewards at each institution; and systematizing metadata so researchers can easily find and use data. He suggested creating a "single window," as in the United States, to allow unified application for and use of administrative data.
Yu said, "As an internet powerhouse and e-government frontrunner, Korea can become a data-advanced nation on par with the Nordic countries if only unnecessary legal hurdles are removed," adding, "the launch of the National Data Office should become that turning point."