The Central Statistics Office (CSO; ga, An Phríomh-Oifig Staidrimh) is the

statistical Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industr ...

agency responsible for the gathering of "information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions" in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, in particular the

National Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

which is held every five years. The office is answerable to the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

and has its main offices in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

.The Director General of the CSO is Pádraig Dalton.

History

The CSO was established on a statutory basis in 1994 to reduce the number of separate offices responsible for collecting statistics for the state. The CSO had existed, as an independent

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

office within the

Department of the Taoiseach The Department of the Taoiseach ( ga, Roinn an Taoisigh) is the government department of the Taoiseach, the title in Ireland for the head of government.Article 13.1.1° and Article 28.5.1° of the Constitution of Ireland. The latter provision re ...

since June 1949, and its work greatly increased in the following decades particularly from 1973 with Ireland joining the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

. Previous to the 1949 reforms, statistics were collected by the Statistics Branch of Department of Industry and Commerce on the creation of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

in 1922. The Statistics Branch amalgamated a number of statistics gathering organisations that had existed in Ireland since 1841 when the first comprehensive census was undertaken by the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

. On 15 September 2020, on the advice of the Central Statistics Office, the Government postponed the

quinquennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

population census, originally scheduled for 18 April 2021, until 3 April 2022 because of health and logistical obstacles caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Head of the Office

The current Director-General of the Central Statistics Office is Pádraig Dalton.

Household Finance and Consumption Survey

In 2013 the first ever Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) was conducted in Ireland by the Central Statistics Office on behalf of the

Central Bank of Ireland The Central Bank of Ireland ( ga, Banc Ceannais na hÉireann) is Ireland's central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It is the country's financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms ...

as part of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important centra ...

(ECB) HFCS scheme/network."Press Release Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2013"
Retrieved on 2015-02-14.

References

External links

Official site - Central Statistics Office

National Statistics Board, Ireland
Government agencies of the Republic of Ireland

Department of the Taoiseach {{gov-stub

History

Head of the Office

Household Finance and Consumption Survey

See also

References

External links