Statistics Singapore - A History of Singapore's Statistical System

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A History of Singapore's Statistical System

Official statistics in Singapore date back to 1871 when the first census of population was taken. Since then, censuses had been taken regularly at ten year intervals, except for a brief disruption during the period of the World War II. The Census Ordinance of 1880 constituted the first legislation for Singapore (see Box 4).

Other than the census of population, the collection of official statistics was formally instituted only in 1921 when a Statistical Bureau was established. Statistics in Singapore were collected under the Statistics Ordinance of 1921 as part of British Malaya. This Ordinance provided for the establishment of a Statistical Bureau to be headed by the Registrar of Malayan Statistics who was given the authority to issue requisition for information. The Statistical Bureau was renamed in the 1950s as the Department of Statistics and the Registrar of Malayan Statistics as the Chief Statistician.

Box 4 : Significant Events in Singapore’s History of Statistical Development
Date	Description of Event
2 Apr 1871	Census Day – Straits Settlements of Singapore.
1880	First Census Ordinance in Singapore was enacted in 1880.
30 Nov 1921	First Statistics Ordinance called for the establishment of a Statistical Bureau.
23/24 Sep 1947	Census Day – The Federation of Malaya and Colony of Singapore.
17/18 Jun 1957	Census Day – The Singapore Department of Statistics was, for the first time, responsible for the taking of the census.
22 Jun 1970	Census Day – First post-independence census.
1972	The Government established the National Statistical Commission (NSC) and adopted a decentralised statistical system.
7 Sep 1973	Parliament enacted the Statistics Act, 1973 and Census Act, 1973.
1983	The NSC was dissolved and the functions of national statistical co-ordination were taken over by the Singapore Department of Statistics.
6 Apr 1990	Significant changes made to the Statistics (Amendment) Act, 1990 came into operation.
2000	The Singapore Department of Statistics conducted Singapore's first register-based census of population.
1 Jul 2004	Changes made to Statistics (Amendment) Act, 2004.

Limited Scope of Statistical Activities Prior to 1959

The statistical system was largely centralised, with a single organisation responsible for all statistical activities. The Department of Statistics compiled almost all the statistical series, focusing principally on external trade, shipping and cargo statistics and basic demographic data. The modest scale of statistical activities was in part due to the predominance of entrepôt trade and port operations in Singapore's economy. Statistics on these economic activities were largely obtained as administrative by-products.

Expansion of Statistical Activities in the 1960s

With self-government and particularly after independence in 1965, the scope of statistical activities broadened in response to the increased demand for statistics. The expansion and diversification of the economic activities to include manufacturing, commerce and services necessitated the collection of a wider range of statistics. New statistical data series were required for charting the economic strategy and development plans as well as monitoring their implementation.

The Department of Statistics which continued to be the central statistical organisation initiated a number of large-scale statistical enquiries. In addition to the annual censuses of industrial production that the Department had been conducting since 1960, quarterly surveys of industrial production were initiated in 1966. The first survey on the services sector was conducted in 1968 and the first survey on wholesale and retail trades in 1969.

Box 5 : Major Milestones in the 1960s
Date	Statistical Activity
1960	Projects were initiated to compile Public Sector Accounts and Consumer Price Index. Official statistics were compiled for Balance of Payments (BOP) estimates and Government Revenue and Expenditure statistics.
1961	A project was initiated to compile Gross Domestic Expenditure (GDE) for selected components, namely, consumption expenditure and gross domestic capital formation. Consumer Price Index was first compiled.
1962	The "Monthly Digest of Statistics" was first published.
1967	GDP estimates, by output approach, was initiated. Estimates on GDP by industry, and output approach, for 1960 to 1965, was compiled.
1968	The "Yearbook of Statistics" was first released. The Survey of Services was launched.
1969	The Survey of Commerce was launched.

The rapid expansion in the activities and responsibilities of the Department of Statistics necessitated a review of the statistical system. A Commission of Inquiry on Statistical Activities was appointed by the President in May 1968. The Commission was tasked to review all aspects of the government statistical machinery and to make recommendations on the improvement of the system.

In its report published in July 1969, the Commission recommended "the development of a decentralised statistical system under which the present Department of Statistics will be expanded, and a research and statistics section set up in each of the four Ministries of Labour, National Development, Education and Health which have statistical activities that are sufficiently complex, plentiful, specialised, and nationally important as to warrant the establishment of a separate statistical system within each of them". The report also considered the development of a sound statistical system an important infrastructural prerequisite of Singapore's economic and social development.

Adoption of Decentralised System in the 1970s

The recommendation for a decentralised statistical system was implemented in early 1972 with the establishment of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) under the NSC Act. In the initial phase between 1972 and 1976, NSC, as the co-ordinator and overseeing authority, helped to set up formal Research and Statistics Units (RSUs) in the four ministries mentioned in the Commission of Inquiry Report. Informal RSUs in statutory boards where the directors of such RSUs were not empowered to issue requisitions for data were also established.

Box 6 : Major Milestones in the 1970s
Date	Statistical Activity
1970	Singapore’s first Census of Population after independence was conducted. The Study of Financial Structure and Operation of Companies in Singapore was launched.
1972	Public Sector Accounts were compiled.
1972/73	The Second Household Expenditure Survey was conducted in Singapore. This was the first time that the Singapore Department of Statistics conducted the survey. The HES was first conducted by the Social Welfare Department, in 1956/57.
1973	The first Labour Force Survey (LFS) was launched by the Singapore Department of Statistics. The LFS was taken over by the then Ministry of Labour (now Ministry of Manpower) in 1974 after the adoption of the decentralised statistical system.
1974	The Consumer Price Index was first revised, based on the results of the 1972/73 Household Expenditure Survey. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was first compiled.
1975	The Business Expectations Survey was launched. GDP and GDE estimates at 1968 market prices were first released.
1976	Compilation of Input-Output Tables was initiated.
1978	The first set of Input-Output Tables (for 1973) were published.

During this period, there was a complementary division of work. NSC and RSUs carried out statistical projects in areas under their respective purviews. For example, the Labour Force Survey, which was first carried out by the Department of Statistics in 1973, was taken over by the Ministry of Labour and conducted annually since 1974. The Department of Statistics, on its part, expanded its activities to gather data on the overall economy and population. It conducted the Household Expenditure Survey in 1972/73 and started a number of new projects such as the various wholesale price indices in 1974 and the Input-Output Tables in 1976.

Due to attrition of staff, the NSC Secretariat's functions and remaining employees were transferred to the Department of Statistics in 1976 to form the Demography and Co-ordination Division. The NSC Board continued to give overall policy directions which were implemented by the Department. This situation went on for about seven years until 1983 when NSC was dissolved and the NSC Act repealed on the ground that it had accomplished its mission.

Further Decentralisation in the 1980s

With more ministries and statutory boards having their own RSUs, further rationalisation and decentralisation of statistical activities were undertaken in the 1980s. The collection, compilation and publication of statistics for particular areas or sectors were transferred from the Department of Statistics to other public sector organisations which had administrative responsibility over those areas or sectors. A system of co-ordination was put in place to ensure that the decentralisation would not adversely affect the efficiency of data analysis and dissemination.

The statistical data and related activities transferred from the Department of Statistics to other public sector organisations since 1984 include:

Merchandise trade statistics to the Trade Development Board, now known as International Enterprise Singapore;

Manufacturing statistics to the Economic Development Board;

Construction of property price index to the Ministry of National Development¹;

Annual survey of financial institutions to the Monetary Authority of Singapore;

Shipping and sea cargo statistics to the Port of Singapore Authority;

Civil aviation and air cargo statistics to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore;

Births and deaths statistics to the Registry of Births and Deaths in the National Registration Department; and

Marriages and divorces statistics to the Ministry of Community Development, now known as Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

1 The Urban Redevelopment Authority assumed responsibility for construction and real estate statistics with effect from September 1989 when it absorbed the Research and Statistics Unit of the Ministry of National Development.

With the divestment of selected statistical activities, the Singapore Department of Statistics was able to deploy resources for new statistical activities. The economic recession in 1985 also provided impetus for the increase in number of surveys conducted, survey periodicity and number of items collected. For example, the periodicity of the Surveys of Commerce and Services was increased from bi-annual to annual. New monthly surveys were launched and new economic indicators were compiled to fill data gaps for short-term economic monitoring.

Box 7 : Major Milestones in the 1980s
Date	Statistical Activity
1981	Collection of divorces statistics was initiated. The Survey of Singapore’s Investment Abroad was launched.
1985	The Public Access Time Series (PATS) Database was developed and opened for public subscription. The monthly Survey of Retail Sales and Catering Trade was launched. The monthly Retail Trade and Catering Trade Indices were first compiled.
1986	The Establishment Hub was set up. Various Economic Indices were initiated, including Composite Leading and Coincident Indicators, Unit Labour Cost and Unit Business Cost Indices.
1987	The monthly Retail Trade and Catering Trade Indices were first released.

Changes in Statistical Legislation and Adoption of IT in the 1990s

Several changes were made to the Statistics Act in 1990 to strengthen the statistical system. Whilst these changes are important by themselves, they should be considered within the context of the first major change in Singapore's statistical legislation in 1973 when the Statistics Ordinance was repealed and in its place the Statistics Act was enacted.

The major revision of the Statistics Act in 1973 was necessitated by the adoption of a decentralised statistical system and establishment of the National Statistical Commission. The major thrust of the Statistics Act, 1973 was the extension of the power to issue requisition for information to directors of RSUs and Chairman of NSC besides the Chief Statistician. In addition, the Chief Statistician, directors of RSUs and Chairman of NSC were empowered to compound offences committed by persons to whom requisitions have been issued.

The Statistics Act, 1973 was in force until 1990 when amendments were introduced in response to the cumulative changed circumstances and latest developments in statistical collection and co-ordination. In 1990, the Statistics Act was amended to incorporate the following significant changes:

The Chief Statistician is designated as the National Statistical Co-ordinator;

All RSUs are required to comply with the recommendations of the Chief Statistician, with provisions for recourse to the Minister to resolve differences; and

The Chief Statistician is empowered to direct the director of any RSU to furnish or supply to him information obtained under Section 6 of the Statistics Act and to direct any competent authorities to furnish or supply to him any particulars or information obtained from certain specified acts in the Third Schedule of the Statistics Act.

Parallel with the legislative changes, statistical developments in Singapore have moved in tandem with technological developments. The decade of the 1990s was characterised by rapid advances in information technology and the widespread use of the internet. The IT innovations played a major role in streamlining and improving statistical processes in data collection, compilation and dissemination. The growing importance of IT applications in various aspects of the economy has also created an emerging need for statistical measurement of electronic transactions in commerce and their contribution to the economy. This has led to the launching of a new series of statistical surveys in the 1990s.

Box 8 : Major Milestones in the 1990s
Date	Statistical Activity
1994	Development of the Household Registration Database was initiated. The Survey of Consumer Credit in Singapore was launched.
1995	The Statistics Singapore Home Page was launched on the internet. The first mid-decade General Household Survey was launched. A joint project on Tourism Satellite Account with Singapore Tourism Board was initiated.
1996	The Time Series Retrieval and Dissemination (TREND) System redeveloped from the PATS System and launched for public subscription. The Commercial Establishment Information System (CEIS) was redeveloped from the Establishment Hub and launched for subscription by public sector organisations The Survey on International Trade in Services and quarterly Wholesale Trade Survey were launched. The MTI Telelink, a telephone information service, was launched.
1997	The Domestic and Foreign Wholesale Trade Indices were first released. The Survey of Debt Transactions with non-residents was launched. Estimates of Multi-Factor Productivity Growth were first released. The Monthly Digest and Yearbook of Statistics were first produced from an automated publication system.
1998	The National Dwellings Database (NDD) was enhanced to incorporate additional data items for analysis. Estimates of Gross Domestic Product by income approach were first published. Quarterly Survey of Services was launched. The Electronic Transmission of Returns (ETR) System was launched for on-line submission of returns in the Business Expectations Survey. The Singstat DataShop was launched for purchase of Singapore official statistics through credit card and cash card via the internet.

New initiatives in the 2000s

To meet the increasing demand for better and more timely data and services from policy makers and general public, DOS embarked on a number of initiatives to improve the process of data collection and dissemination by optimising on existing sources of administrative data as well as making strategic use of advances in technology.

Data Collection

In 2000, Singapore’s first registered-based Census of Population was conducted. The register-based approach to Census 2000, supplemented by a large-scale survey, marked a watershed in the history of Census taking in Singapore. For the first time since 1871, information was no longer “canvassed” from the entire population. Basic demographic information was sourced from administrative registers while additional data required for in-depth studies were collected from a sample of the population.

To facilitate submission of survey returns, customized survey forms for the monthly Producer Prices Surveys were disseminated automatically through the use of the Department's Lotus Notes email system since 2003. This resulted in significant productivity and efficiency gains. The application was subsequently extended to other short term surveys such as Monthly Surveys on Retail Sales and Catering Trade, Quarterly Survey of Wholesale Trade and Quarterly Survey of Services

In the 2005 General Household Survey, the department adopted Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) and an automated system of mobile phone SMS alerts for the first time, to facilitate data collection in the field.

Data Dissemination

In the area of data dissemination, the SingStat website (www.singstat.gov.sg) was positioned as a statistical portal providing Singapore official statistics compiled by DOS and other government agencies. This website also contains links to overseas statistical agencies and international organizations. With effect from June 2006, DOS publications have been made available for free access via SingStat website. Since its launch in 1995, the SingStat website has undergone continuous enhancements and revamps in contents and navigation aspects to better serve our data users' needs. The latest revamp was completed in July 2007.

In 2004, DOS launched the internet-accessible time series system, SingStat Time Series (STS) Online to replace the remote dial-up system. The STS presently includes more than 7,000 statistical time series on Singapore society and economy from several domains, including national accounts, balance of payments, investments, finance, labour, prices, business expectations, trade, manufacturing, tourism, demography, health and education. With an easy-to-use search engine and personalized portals accessible via the internet, STS subscribers could search, select and retrieve important, timely and relevant time series data.

Data users could subscribe to our "Singstat Express" service, which emails to the subscribers press releases and notifications of new publications by DOS as soon as they are released. SMS alert is available for local users.

Box 9 : Major Milestones in the 2000s
Date	Statistical Activity
2000	Singapore’s first register-based Census of Population was conducted.
2001	All Special Data Dissemination Standards (SDDS) requirements at the time of subscription were met for Singapore. The SingStat Express email notification service and the SingStat DataShop@GovMall were launched.
2002	The Statistics Singapore website was revamped.
2003	Customized survey forms for the monthly Producer Prices Surveys were disseminated automatically through the use of the Department's Lotus Notes email system.
2004	The SingStat Express service was enhanced and SMS notification was provided. The reporting format for the services account in Singapore’s Balance of Payment was expanded. DOS launched the internet-accessible time series system, SingStat Time Series (STS) Online to replace the remote dial-up system, TREND.
2005	The General Household Survey 2005, which adopted the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in data collection for the first time, was conducted.
2006	Softcopy of DOS’ latest publications available for free, on the Statistics Singapore website.

Last updated: 29 Jul 2008