Kang Shin-wook, Head of Statistics Korea, "Will Grant Legal Status to Big Data"

Interview with Kang Shin-wook, Commissioner of Statistics Korea
New Focus on 'Statistical Timeliness' Due to COVID-19... Utilizing Policy Making Through Legal Amendments

Kang Shin-wook, Commissioner of the Korea National Statistical Office, is being interviewed on the 9th at the Seoul Naraesem Library of the Statistical Office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Statistics Korea is promoting a plan to grant legal status to big data and administrative data to enhance the timeliness of statistics and make them publicly available.

Kang Shin-wook, Commissioner of Statistics Korea, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 10th, "We are preparing an amendment to the Statistics Act to manage quickly aggregated data such as big data and administrative data under a category other than national approved statistics." Commissioner Kang added, "Currently, there is only one standard called national approved statistics. Even if the data are not as strictly controlled as approved statistics, meaningful results can emerge when large datasets are aggregated."

Currently, statistics in South Korea are divided into about 1,200 types of national approved statistics and other statistics. Statistics Korea aims to increase the utilization value by granting legal status to categories other than national approved statistics. To this end, Statistics Korea is discussing either supplementing Article 18 (Approval of Statistical Compilation) of the Statistics Act or establishing a separate provision.

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic this year has brought the speed of national statistics into focus. In urgent situations such as infectious diseases, timely policy-making requires rapid statistical figures, but waiting for existing national approved statistics is too slow.

In fact, Statistics Korea surveyed mask prices daily and provided the data to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency during the mask shortage earlier this year. They also analyzed trends in service industries and retail sales by checking credit card usage weekly and delivered the results to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Commissioner Kang’s remarks reflect the intention to grant legal status to such rapidly collected data to enhance their use as foundational materials for future policy-making.

Commissioner Kang stated, "At the 17th OECD Committee on Statistics Policy held in June, how to overcome the dilemma between timeliness and accuracy was a very important issue," adding, "In the future, providing representative statistics stably will be an important task."

Statistics Korea is currently benchmarking the UK's use of big data. The UK provides estimated statistics for key middle-class areas using the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and administrative data. Additionally, they plan to expand the content included in cost indicators such as owner-occupied housing costs, credit card interest, private insurance premiums, and student loan repayment data, aiming to receive national statistics approval in 2023.

Alongside this, Statistics Korea plans to publish consumer price indices divided into upper and lower classes to reflect the public’s perceived inflation. They are developing price indices by income class using consumption patterns by income brackets. Commissioner Kang explained, "Since the overall population is viewed as one group and prices are calculated based on the number and types of goods consumed on average, the perceived inflation felt by specific groups or regions appears different," adding, "We are proactively considering developing price indices by income class divided into two groups: upper and lower classes." However, it is expected to take 2 to 3 years before actual publication for time series analysis.

Statistics Korea is also developing statistics reflecting platform workers. Until now, workers have been classified as wage workers under employers or non-wage workers, but online platform workers will be separately categorized. Discussions are currently underway in the Task Force (TF) for revising and standardizing the Korean occupational status classification. The TF includes the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Presidential Committee on Jobs, Korea Employment Information Service, academia, labor, and management sectors. Commissioner Kang emphasized, "The issue with platform workers is whether work instructions, distribution, and compensation decisions are made through platforms or not. These issues sometimes overlap and sometimes differ," adding, "There is a need to discuss which groups should be considered platform workers or dependent contractors."

Statistics Korea is also developing an online transaction trend survey reflecting the expansion of untact consumption among households and businesses due to COVID-19. This includes not only online shopping but also online transactions between companies. Commissioner Kang said, "It could be announced next year or the year after," adding, "In the future, we will be able to understand online transactions between companies and how much individual companies rely on online sales."

The task Commissioner Kang is currently most focused on is the Population and Housing Census to be conducted from November. As the nation’s most fundamental statistical survey conducted every five years, the census selects a sample of 20% of all households in South Korea. Although it is a field survey, this year, considering the COVID-19 situation, non-face-to-face surveys have been expanded. This allows respondents to participate conveniently through various methods such as mobile, telephone, and PC. Commissioner Kang explained, "It basically includes functions to check errors, so accuracy has been further improved." This year’s survey added questions about single-person households and, for the first time, included items related to companion animals.

Commissioner Kang took office as Commissioner of Statistics Korea in August 2018 and marked his second anniversary on the 28th of last month. Regarding concerns about declining trust in statistics, he emphasized, "We investigate as accurately as possible and publish the data as it is." He explained, "There is absolutely no possibility of manipulating statistics by considering additional factors, and the system itself does not allow it."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.