Many socio-economic indicators are based on administrative data (for example, number of unemployed, number of individuals receiving benefits, etc.). The data is mostly limited to information required by the collecting administration. It is difficult to have an overview of the situation of the entire population based on this data. For example, it is generally impossible to draw a link between data held on individuals and the household in which they live.

Thanks to the datawarehouse, it is now possible to combine the various data and produce statistics that cannot be calculated by a single Social Security institution. The Datawarehouse Labour Market and Social Protection is a collaboration between various Social Security institutions (Mulitsectoral individual account, National College of Health Services, Fund for accidents at work, Fund for occupational diseases, National institute for sickness and invalidity insurance, National Institute for the Social Insurance of Self-employed Persons, National office for family allowances, National employment office, National pension office, National office for social security, National social security office for the provincial and local administrations, Pension Service of the Public Sector, Public Planning Service for Social Integration, and VDAB/FOREM/Actiris/ADG). It proposes the linking of socio-economic data from these social security institutions.

As the number of connected institutions rises, the statistics cover an ever greater share of the population. In 2003, three new categories of the population were added: pensioners, child beneficiaries of family allowance and people who receive social integration benefit or financial assistance from the Public Social Welfare Centre (CPAS).

The Health and Social Observatory uses:

• Basic applications regularly made available by the Crossroads Bank for Social Security. This comprises a set of charts that offers an insight into the Belgian labour market and the socio-economic situation of the population (for example, the indicator relating to the number of adults and children living in a household with no earned income)
• Specific applications where requested by the Observatory (for example, statistics on recipients of preferential reimbursement rates for healthcare (BIM)).

For more information: http://www.ksz.fgov.be/en/international/home/index.html