In the nineties a strong drive took place in the European Union to come to the creation of harmonized business statistics. With the adoption in December 1996 of the Council regulation concerning structural business statistics a last building block was added to a comprehensive statistical infrastructure comprising concepts, classifications, methods and tools.

With a new legislative basis Eurostat felt the need to provide European statisticians with a training document on the subject. The objective of such a book would not be to provide definitions, fixed methods or rules. Rather the created "Handbook on the design and implementation of business surveys" gives in a step by step approach guidelines. A set of pragmatic ideas for making good statistics.

This document book will support statisticians in Member States when making changes in the data collection and processing process and contribute to the production of high quality statistics for the European Union.

Custodian: Eurostat