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One main goal and six missions

One main goal: to enlighten the economic and social debate

The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) collects, produces, analyzes, and disseminates information on the French economy and society.
This information is relevant to public officials, government bodies, businesses, researchers, the media, teachers, students and private individuals. It enables them to enhance their knowledge, conduct studies, prepare forecasts, and take decisions. To satisfy its users, INSEE listens to their needs and adjusts its work program accordingly.

INSEE is responsible for coordinating France's official statistical service. It represents France in European Union institutions and international bodies in charge of statistical harmonization.

INSEE is also engaged in higher education and research via GENES (Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique).

Six missions to help fulfill our goal

Collection and production

INSEE organizes the population census and tracks demographic changes. It produces the main indicators for the national economy, such as the national accounts, the consumer price index, and other short-term economic indicators.

It periodically conducts statistical surveys of households on topics including employment, living conditions, housing, and health.

It gathers information from enterprises on their characteristics. It participates in the improvement of collection methods.

To lessen the response burden, INSEE extracts data for purely statistical purposes from documents collected by other government entities. Example include transcripts of civil registration records, employers' annual statements of payroll data, annual income-tax returns, social-contribution records, tax returns by industrial and commercial firms, and value-added-tax (VAT) returns.

INSEE also manages the SIRENE business register, the national identification register of private individuals (RNIPP), and voter rolls.

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Analysis

Using the data collected, INSEE prepares studies on the national economy, in particular the production system: economic conditions, analysis of major economic and financial balances, analysis of the situation and behavior of enterprises, and analysis of economic activity sectors. It produces studies on French society, covering demographic behaviors (births, deaths, migrations), education and training, employment and unemployment, income and poverty, and living conditions.

These studies often include a spatial dimension, such as the geographic distribution of people and economic activities, and exchanges between territorial units.

INSEE prepares very-short-term forecasts on the French economy. It develops and applies macroeconomic and demographic models to contribute insights on medium- and long-term changes in the French economy and society.

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Dissemination

The statistics produced by INSEE are available to all, free of charge, on INSEE's website www.insee.fr. One of INSEE's essential priorities is to disseminate its statistics and findings.

Businesses, government agencies, local communities, but also researchers, educators, students, journalists, and private citizens can access all the economic and social information produced by INSEE and the official statistical service, within the limits of confidentiality rules.

To fill out its offering obtainable on www.insee.fr, INSEE prepares customized products adapted to users' specific needs. For example, it can compile individualized tables, extract data, and even perform surveys, studies, and analyses at the request of government departments, local authorities, businesses, chambers of commerce, and others.

Dissemination at INSEE

  • Access to publications and services
  • Access to databases
  • Voice servers ("INSEE by phone" 24/7)
    • 0 892 680 760 - 0,34 euro/minute
      This voice server provides the monthly consumer price index and the quarterly rent reference index.
    • 0 825 800 882 - 0,15 euro/minute
      This voice server allows to get an opinion on the situation of an enterprise from the SIRENE register.
    • 0 825 332 203 - 0,15 euro/minute
      This voice server is dedicated to information on the SIRENE register

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Coordination

Most French ministries run their own statistical offices, which engage in statistical operations within their ministry's field of competency. INSEE's remit is to coordinate their work.

  • It acts as secretariat for the National Council for Statistical Information (Conseil National de l'Information Statistique: CNIS). The Council delivers opinions on the programs of statistical offices, enforces quality standards for surveys, and oversees the implementation of statistical regulations concerning areas such as compliance with statistical confidentiality and response to compulsory surveys.
  • It trains the management-level staff of the official statistical service and manages their careers.
  • It supervises the instruments for ensuring consistency of statistical information: it manages the registers of individuals and enterprises; in the appropriate international organizations, it takes part in the definition of accounting concepts and frameworks, as well as in preparing classifications.
  • It develops tools for exchanging information in the official statistical service and pooling the service's investments.
  • It helps to create conditions that foster the growth of relations with business firms.
  • It maintains the official-statistics portal, which gives access to statistical information released online by all French ministerial statistical offices.

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Teaching and promotion of research

Through the Grouping of National Economics and Statistics Schools (Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et de Statistique: GENES), INSEE provides training for specialists in statistics, economics, and information processing. Graduates from INSEE schools are sought after by businesses, government agencies, and public institutions.

INSEE undertakes research in two main areas: economic modeling and statistical methodology.

The Grouping of National Economics and Statistics Schools (Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et de Statistique: GENES)

GENES consolidates INSEE's higher-education and research activities. It comprises:

  • two grandes écoles (selective training schools):
    • ENSAE (École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique)
    • ENSAI (École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information)
  • a research centre: CREST (Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique)
  • a continuing-education centre: CEPE (Centre d'Études des Programmes Économiques).

 

ENSAE, a school dedicated to training economist-statisticians

ENSAE is the scientific grande école specializing in economics and statistics, and their applications to analysis, finance, and insurance. It trains civil servants (with the rank of INSEE administrateurs and commissaires contrôleurs des assurances) and non-civil-servants. The school's annual intake is approximately 125 students, through two channels:

  • competitive entrance exams for candidates who have completed one of the three classes préparatoires (intensive training programmes) called maths spé MP* and MP, khâgnes B/L, and prépas EC/S
  • admission with prior qualifications for graduates of other grandes écoles (Polytechnique, HEC, ENS, Mines, Ponts et Chaussées, etc.) or holders of an "M1" masters in mathematics, mathematics applied to social science (MASS), or economics-econometrics.

Programme duration is two or three years, depending on the student's previous academic record.

For more information, visit the ENSAE website: www.ensae.fr

 

ENSAI, a school that trains for careers in statistics and information analysis

ENSAI is the first French grande école to offer access to a wide range of statistical-engineering and information-processing careers through advanced courses in statistics, econometrics, and IT. Forty percent of the annual intake consists of "civil-service interns" who graduate after two years with the rank of attaché statisticien de l'INSEE.

The 60% of students who are not civil servants go on to a third year of specialized training, and graduate with an engineering degree.

The majority of the intake consists of students who have completed classes préparatoires in science or khâgne classes (intensive training for grandes écoles) in the B/L or D2 category. Some students with a university B.A. or M.A. in mathematics, social science or economics can take the entrance exam at L2 level or be admitted at M1 level on the strength of prior qualifications.

For more information, visit the ENSAI website: www.ensai.fr

 

CREST, a centre with 100 researchers, including 45 graduate students

CREST is the economic and statistical research centre common to INSEE and its grandes écoles. The centre specializes in:

  • modelling economic and social phenomena
  • designing and implementing statistical methods.

For more information, visit the CREST website: www.crest.fr

 

CEPE, a continuing-education centre for economics and statistics

CEPE provides training for attendees from the business world, public and semi-public agencies, and government bodies. Inter-company or customized training sessions are designed for statisticians and economists at beginner level or at a more advanced level who want to deepen their knowledge of a specific aspect of their field.

For more information, visit the CEPE website: www.lecepe.fr

Schools location

The GENES comprises 4 establishments:

  • ENSAE - CEPE:
    3 avenue Pierre Larousse
    92245 Malakoff CEDEX
    ENSAE switchboard: +33 1 41 17 65 25
    CEPE switchboard: +33 1 41 17 57 06
  • ENSAI:
    rue Blaise Pascal
    Campus de Ker Lann
    35 170 Bruz
    Switchboard: +33 2 99 05 32 32
  • CREST:
    15 boulevard Gabriel Péri
    92245 Malakoff CEDEX
    Switchboard: +33 1 41 17 60 81

For more information on GENES schools: Discover the role of grandes écoles in France, the history of INSEE schools since 1946.

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Helping to build an international statistical space

INSEE works daily with Eurostat and its national counterparts in the European Union. It is thus helping to build the EU's statistical space. As part of this undertaking, the Institute is involved in drafting statistical regulations and—in compliance with the subsidiarity principle—in producing European statistics.

On the international scene, INSEE participates in the statistical work of the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.

Under the terms of bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements, INSEE provides assistance to foreign statistical agencies and helps train statisticians in the developing countries as well as in countries in transition to a market economy. These actions are undertaken in consultation with national and international organizations, notably the European Commission and Eurostat.

CEFIL, INSEE's training center in Libourne (south-west France), organizes seminars and meetings with statisticians and economists from abroad.

The Institute issues La lettre de la coopération technique internationale and co-publishes the methodological journal Statéco.

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