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Publication policy

Publication time

Statistics Austria publishes up to 300 press releases per year, which are displayed on the website at the scheduled time of 9:00 am. A different publication time is possible in exceptional cases and will be indicated separately in advance. This may be the case for press conferences or for results that are subject to an embargo by Eurostat, OECD or similar.

Publication principle

In accordance with the "special publication obligations" pursuant to Section 30 (3) of the Federal Statistics Act 2000, the Federal Statistical Office must inform the competent federal minister without delay of the results of statistical surveys and, at the same time, ensure that they are published in an appropriate manner. In addition, advance transmission of information may take place within a narrow framework described below.

Regulation on the pre-submission of information

Pre-submission of information on statistics or statistical surveys by Statistics Austria to public bodies (e.g. the Federal Chancellery, federal ministries and other public bodies such as provincial statistics) is only permitted under certain conditions. In this case, Statistics Austria strictly follows the requirements resulting from national and European legal foundations and the European Statistics Code of Practice. According to the Code of Practice, pre-submission must be well-founded, access must be restricted and controlled, and the submission must be publicly disclosed. In accordance with the legal requirements and an expert opinion on this matter, Statistics Austria proceeds as follows:

  1. Upon written request of a public body and appropriate justification (e.g. adequate preparation for enquiries) the pre-submission may be at 3 p.m. on the previous day if publication is scheduled for 9 a.m. Only in exceptional cases (e.g. preparation of a press conference) pre-submission may take place 24 hours before publication.
  2. The pre-submission shall in any case be made with reference to the observance of an embargo period. Any influence on the statistical results shall be excluded, since the surveys have already been completed and the results documented prior to any pre-submission.
  3. All pre-submissions are listed, stating the type of information (e.g. press release), the requesting public body and the time of pre-submission, and are published on Statistics Austria's website and thus made transparent. Internally, the name of the requesting person as well as the request itself are documented and stored. If the person does not consent to the storage of request and name, pre-submission is excluded.

With this procedure, Statistics Austria applies the strictest criteria for advance transmission and transparency in comparison with other European statistical institutions.

The supervisory bodies of Statistics Austria, namely the Statistics Council and the Economic Council, as bodies of the Federal Statistical Office, are not "external users" in the sense of the European Statistics Code of Practice and therefore do not fall under the regulations listed there.

Last updated on 2024-03-18.
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