Courrier des statistiques N11 - 2024

If you enjoyed learning about the history of Official Statistics in issue N9 of the Courrier on the theme of “Official Statistics and Democratic Debate (1946–1987)”, do not hesitate and dive into the second instalment. In a gradual and incremental manner, European construction molded the production of official statistics, a new era of openness and free access started up and new themes emerged.
Faced with an ocean of data available on INSEE’s website, how can it be made easier to navigate through it? This is the topic of the next paper, which highlights the essential metadata, the relevance of a catalogue and the possibilities of accessing “hypercubes”.
The operations lying beneath quantification in the energy sector are then unveiled, at a time of an ever‑increasing focus on the ecological transition.
The other four papers in this issue are parts of a dossier which revolves around the Répertoire statistique des individus et des logements (Statistical Register of Individuals and Dwellings, RÉSIL).
It starts out with an overall presentation of the RÉSIL project, describing its guiding principles. The second paper reveals the consultation process undertaken by INSEE, to ensure the legitimacy of this register and to respond to legal and ethical issues. Two steps of the RÉSIL process required special attention. Thus, the third paper of the dossier deals with record linkage: purposes, methodology, implementation and quality assessment. Finally, the last paper delves into an explanation of the ARC (accueil‑réception‑contrôle (Receipt, Acceptance, Control)) tool: initially applied to the déclaration sociale nominative (Nominative Social Declaration, DSN), it has been applied more broadly for the RÉSIL project.

Courrier des statistiques
Paru le :Paru le06/01/2026
Jocelyne Mauguin and Nicolas Sagnes
Courrier des statistiques- January 2026
Consulter

Facilitating Access to INSEE Data Cubes, Catalogue and Metadata

Jocelyne Mauguin and Nicolas Sagnes

INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) publishes on its website a vast amount of data covering numerous economic and social themes such as demography, employment, national accounts, and price index. Given the richness of its website, INSEE must guide its users towards their desired data. Presenting all statistical data in a simple and coherent manner on the insee.fr website is therefore a significant challenge. A first level of dissemination, which is data visualisation, allows to comprehend a given subject through synthetic indicators presented as simple, clear, and easy-to-understand visuals. However, to go further in the analysis, more detailed data are made available. These are typically presented in an aggregated form: multidimensional cubes that cross-reference various variables of interest such as gender, age, or socio-professional category in household surveys. The challenge then becomes offering these informations in well-standardized and open-source formats, while also thoroughly documenting them, relying on international standards. These data must also be well-catalogued to facilitate discovery. To access them, INSEE’s data consultation services are being updated to make it possible to navigate through these cubes. Finally, the data must be accessible both to internet users and to machines that harvest them: the use of the latter opens up new prospects for data consumption modes through artificial intelligence.