The 2023 activity report of the State Data Agency has been published
The State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) reports: WHAT WAS 2023 IN THE AGENCY?
Everything was/is new
The organizational reform started a few years ago has taken shape - we began 2023 with a new name, a new law regulating our activities, and a new strategy outlining the vision of a new generation data authority – to be No. 1 data science practitioners in Europe.
Our ambition to be the central state data controller and data analysis competence center, to ensure mutually beneficial relations with partners, and to create a motivating environment for its people is anchored in the strategy. We have expanded our functions and mandate, we have taken on a new role – to create a new culture of state data management based on a hundred years of experience in official statistics.
A lake without shores for a large ship?
The state's data lake is expanding. At the end of 2023, we received a continuous data flow from 136 information systems. Data from 43 information systems or registers managed by 24 institutions safely reached the Lithuanian Open Data Portal through the state data lake – a total of 181 high maturity and detailed public sector data sets.
The State Data Lake will expand on and grow – the State Data Agency has made a good start with its ambitious project "Integration of State Information Resources into the Data Lake" under the Plan "New Generation Lithuania". The general census of data collected by the state has begun. Over 2023, we established relations with 240 institutions, identified 843 information systems managed by them, prepared 255 primary data structure descriptions together with institutions, "built" connections with 47 systems, and opened 86 of their data sets, of which 80 are high-value data sets established by the European Union.
Coincidences?
"According to the open data survey (OUR data Index) conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2023, Lithuania ranks 10th among OECD countries. Since 2019, our country has risen from the 32nd place by 22 positions. Lithuania, together with South Korea, France, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Denmark and Sweden, is classified among the countries whose open data is evaluated as the highest category." (See the EBPO report.)
"Based on the results of the annual survey of the European Data Portal, this year Lithuania has risen by 6 positions and took a record 7nd place among 35 countries. A survey assessing the open data policy and its practical implementation showed that Lithuania has surpassed such countries as Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Denmark, Norway and the Czech Republic." (See the report of the European Commission.)
Others are also drawing from the data lake. In 2023, for other public sector authorities, we created 45 virtual spaces for secure data analysis. In total, in 2023, 2,446 users connected to the State Data Management Platform, of which 1,968 were from other public sector institutions. It is encouraging that in other authorities – the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of Social Security and Labor of the Republic of Lithuania, the National Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health (NHIF) – teams of analysts have already been established, which can independently “swim” and “fish” in the state data lake.
In 2023, the myth that health data cannot be made available for scientific, business, management or other good purposes has been debunked. 6 new health data reuse permits have been issued under the still "fresh" Law on the Reuse of Health Data – we have collected health data from its controllers and prepared it for safe use in a secure environment. Based on the health data provided, scientists from Vilnius and Cambridge universities have prepared and published a scientific article in the British Journal of Haematology.
Operational data is always in the spotlight: using state data, we have prepared dashboards reflecting our country's current affairs: "Climate crisis monitoring", "International migration", "Patient queues", "Export of sanctioned goods", "Cold season vaccinations", "Long-term forecasts of human resources", "Monitoring indicators of the National Progress Plan", "Monitoring the project "Integration of state information resources into the state data lake". For dashboards, please refer to the "Focus of attention" section on the Official Statistics Portal.
Who needs "no one needs" statistics?
Sometimes we hear, especially from our respondents who have to fill out statistical reports and provide data (thanks to them for this difficult job), "no one needs your statistics".
Official statistics potentially reached audience in 2023 – 5.57 billion contacts. The number of reports in the Lithuanian press, news agencies, internet portals and radio/television is 8,088.
As of 1 January 2024, there were 335.5 million values of statistical indicators, 256 news releases were published on the Official Statistics Portal.
We are proud of the following electronic publications released: "Regions of Lithuania", "Business in Lithuania", "Environment, agriculture and energy in Lithuania", "Digital economy and society in Lithuania", "Lithuania in figures", "Income and living conditions of Lithuanian residents", "Labor market in Lithuania", "The population of Lithuania", "Education and culture in Lithuania".
The indicator database is also adapted for mobile devices.
6,832 individual user requests were answered, almost a tenth of which were official requests submitted to meet individual needs: contract payments, benefits, tariffs, alimony, etc.
Usability index of official statistics, meaning an impact indicator that includes changes in the number of citations in the monitored media, the number of visits to the Database of Indicators and the number of individual user requests, in 2023, amounted to 131 per cent and, compared to 2019, increased by almost a third.
Innovations penetrated statistical survey processes, regulated by strict methodologies. Since 2023, five major retail chains ("Maxima", "Rimi", "Iki", "Norfa", "Lidl") began to provide data on purchase receipts for calculating inflation.
In the European Statistics Competition, we received almost four times more students than in 2022, i.e. more than 80 teams participated in it. The selected 20 teams analyzed various indicators – education, renewable energy resources, drew a statistical portrait of a young person in the EU and Lithuania, checked stereotypes, etc., created videos and websites. The two winning teams will continue to compete at the European level this year.
The largest remote statistical and data literacy trainings were organized so far, in which about 300 teachers from all over Lithuania participated. During the project "Vilnius is a school", 74 lessons were initiated (for involvement, the State Data Agency was awarded as one of the leaders).
Creative workshop "mieSTografika" for bachelors' level (first cycle) students of higher education institutions were organized.
In cooperation with VILNIUS TECH University, an optional module focused on sample methods, small area assessment and data integration was created.
But the most important thing is people!
In 2023, 110 new employees started working at the Agency –
analysts, programmers, data engineers, information managers, statisticians
– such a number, undoubtedly, is a serious statement for putting our high– level ambitions into effect.
With such a team, we can claim that we are becoming a data analytics competence center in the public sector.
Why is this important? The state's data analytics forces should be concentrated and mobilised where the data is managed. Therefore, we are willing not only to share our technological capacity provided by the state data lake, but also to transfer our knowledge and experience to colleagues from other institutions, to enable them to develop their analytical abilities and independence in working with data.
Detailed information on the State Data Agency's 2023 performance/activity results can be found in the report, and the operational strategy is available here.
2024 has quickly accelerated and is in full swing. The State Data Agency is not slowing down.