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PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FOR MISINTERPRETATION OF STATISTICAL DATA
06.10.2016

 The State Statistical Office, as authorised bearer of the statistical system in the Republic of Macedonia, is obliged to react publically in case of misinterpretation or misuse of statistical data, in accordance to article 9-a of the Law on State Statistics.

The reaction is concerning the text titled “Over 300.000 Macedonians live with 5 dollars per day”, published in “Utrinski vesnik” on 05.10.2016, for which the State Statistical Office is giving the following explanation:

1. In the text are presented indicators of at-risk of poverty rate or social exclusion and the poverty rate. Those are two completely different indicators published both in SSO publications and on Eurostat website. The text does not differentiate the two indicators which creates a confusion in the contents and the readers are led to doubt.

2. The text points to differences between the European methodological calculations of poverty and the Macedonian, which gives the impression that the State Statistical Office i.e. Republic of Macedonia is deliberately applying statistical methodology for presenting more favourable data. We are stressing out that for the calculations of the poverty indicators there are no methodological differences with the European Union member states and Eurostat. The State Statistical Office has been conducting the Survey on Income and Living Conditions or EU SILC, which represents a source of data on poverty and social exclusion. The survey is conducted in accordance to the Regulations of the European Parliament and the European Council (Regulation EC no. 1177/2003 as a basis). The data from the survey are transmitted to Eurostat where they are published on the level of EU and individual countries.

With reference to the comparison of the indicator for the poverty rate before and after 2010, it should be noted that until 2010 SSO was calculating the poverty indicators with different source and different methodology which was not comparable to the other EU member states. As of 2010 onwards, the calculations are completely harmonised according to the EU recommendations and are internationally comparable.

3. The newspaper’s text says: “According to them, from 27.3 % in 2010, the poverty rate in 2014 was 24.2 %, i.e. in that year 457 000 persons lived under the poverty threshold”. The cited data on poverty rate in 2014 is wrong and it should be 22.1%.

4. In the mentioned text, part of the data from the publication “Sustainable development” are presented as Eurostat’s data. We are pointing out that the data from the publication “Sustainable development” that refer to the Republic of Macedonia are published by SSO which is also stated in the publication itself.


We recommend the users to take in consideration the public announcement when using the data from the publication “Sustainable development, 2016”.



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