The Federal Statistical Office of Austria ("Statistics Austria") is an independent and non-profit-making federal institution under public law called Statistics Austria (STAT). It is responsible for performing scientific services in the field of federal statistics (§ 22 BStatG). In this context, federal statistics are defined as a (non-personal) information system of the federal government that provides data on the economic, demographic, social, ecological and cultural conditions in Austria. This information helps administrative bodies in planning and political decision-making procedures and in controlling the measures they have taken. Moreover, data are made available to the scientific and business communities as well as to the general public. Federal statistics comprises the compilation of statistics of all kinds, including analyses, prognoses and statistical models that go beyond the interests of a single state (“Bundesland”) (§§ 1 and 2 BStatG). The statistics are decreed by EU legal acts, federal laws or by regulations.
In performing its tasks, Statistics Austria must observe the following principles (§§ 14, 19, 24, 30 BStatG):
In order to make the collected data accessible - within the scope of the legal mandate - not only to the public administration, but also to the scientific and business communities, the broader public as well as citizens, Statistics Austria provides information, expert services, special statistical evaluations as well as statistical data. If these services go beyond the provision of free standard information, an appropriate fee is charged (§ 29 BStatG).