Glossary:Micro Data Linking (MDL)
Micro Data Linking (MDL) is a statistical method for combining data available for individual entities. Entities may be enterprises or persons or, also, a combination of the two (for example, linked employer-employee data).
In official statistics, it has become a strategic approach for exploring new informative needs (for example, globalization and green transition) without increasing the statistical burden on respondents.
MDL may use traditional statistical sources - for example, data collected with surveys already conducted in the Member States under the European regulation - but also new data collections, such as administrative sources available at the national level or, as a promising future perspective, the vast amount of big data emerging from private-sector data sources.
National Business Registers (BR) of enterprises represent the crucial statistical infrastructure for implementing MDL techniques in the European Structural Business Statistics (SBS). They provide the necessary linking keys that uniquely identify the unit of interest – the enterprise - in the various business domains of interest.
During recent years, Eurostat has been carrying out in collaboration with Member States a number of microdata linking projects in business statistics. Grants proposals have been launched to develop methodological guidance and national competences. These initiatives have provided encouraging results. Nevertheless, next steps should develop in the direction of increasing the number of Member States involved in these initiatives.
Overall, these experiences at the country level highlights the importance of coordination among countries to develop harmonized and comparable outputs that can increase international comparability and, thus, support policy decision at the EU level. This approach also implies the need to share the organizational aspects of every step, together with the final objectives of the specific project undertaken.
Further information
- [Micro data linking — 2019 edition]
- [Micro data linking: Addressing new emerging topics without increasing the respondent burden]
- [Eurostat Micro data linking project in European business statistics European Commission – Eurostat Directorate G: Global business statistics]
Statistical data
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