The mobilisation and matching of administrative data from different domains has been for a long time much more advanced in countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands, whose official statistics were initially based on these sources. This mobilisation of administrative sources is now increasing in all countries, offering new possibilities for research and a more comprehensive approach to public policy.
In France, the significance of the individual identification number, the NIR (Numéro d’inscription au répertoire), which can be used to match many of these sources, requires greater care to exploit its full potential.
The Law for a Digital Republic paved the way in 2018 to facilitate the use of these data for official statistics and research. The day organised by the CNIS on 28 January provided an opportunity to take stock of the implementation of this opening. In particular, INSEE presented the draft service for official statistics with a non-meaningful statistical code.
For research, the procedure with a specific non-meaningful code used by the CASD is in place and the first projects are emerging, but it remains limited because it is sometimes difficult to trace the NIR, which is a necessary condition for certain matches. Questions of ethics, transparency, security and cooperation were at the heart of this day, with round tables bringing together – with foreign participants – data producers, users, authorities or organisations involved in privacy issues.
