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(1) Statistical data and indicators are the backbone of responsible evidence‐based policies. In the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the strengthening of economic governance, social indicators play an essential role in informing and supporting the Union’s key priorities. Those priorities relate in particular to inclusive and sustainable growth and job creation; social cohesion; the reduction of poverty, inequalities and social exclusion; the inclusion of people with disabilities, and equal treatment; and skills, mobility and the digital economy. In particular, social indicators are needed to provide a sound statistical basis for developing and monitoring the policies introduced by the Union and the Member States to address those priorities. High‐quality social statistics are needed to improve the resilience of the Union and its cohesion targets and to preserve its welfare levels. Sound data are also of utmost importance as a bulwark against misinformation.

(2) To strengthen the social goals of the European semester, social statistics have a paramount role, and it is essential to improve the availability of social indicators in order to ensure that they are provided in due time for the relevant policy frameworks. Enhancing the social dimension of the European semester would improve the resilience of the Union and its cohesion targets, and would ensure that welfare levels are maintained.

(3) In line with the ‘Beyond GDP’ initiative, it is important to address social aspects of progress with strong indicators focusing on the situation of citizens, describing the distributions of material living conditions and inequalities as well as investigating better the multiple dimensions of quality of life.

(4) European social statistics should be provided on the basis of equal treatment of all types of users, such as policy‐makers, public administrations, researchers, trade unions, students, civil society representatives including non‐governmental organisations, and citizens, which should be able to access statistics freely and easily through Commission (Eurostat) databases on its website and in its publications. In that regard, the timeliness and user‐friendliness of the Commission (Eurostat) website should be further improved.

(5) It is therefore of paramount importance that social indicators are of the necessary high quality, in particular in terms of their accuracy, timeliness, usability and accessibility, their relevance, their adaptability to new users’ requests, as well as their comparability, coherence and efficiency. In particular it is essential to improve the timeliness of social indicators so that they are available in due time for the relevant policy frameworks, including the European Semester. Moreover, more accurate and timely indicators could significantly benefit the monitoring of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

(6) In order to assess the situation of households and persons, it is important to measure income and estimate the minimum level of resources required to participate adequately in society. It is therefore essential to improve data collection and the methodology of standardised indicators in order to provide reference budget estimations on a regional basis, as well as to aim to ensure better coverage of the populations concerned. Statistical data should provide a robust basis for the setting up of indicators adapted to the variety of possible users.

(7) Income is widely used when assessing the situation of households. However, it is also important to measure consumption, wealth and debts, including possible debts in foreign currency, both from a household and from a macroeconomic perspective. Moreover, poverty, in particular child poverty, is a multifaceted phenomenon which involves not only material living conditions, such as level of income, consumption, wealth and debt, but also health, education, and access to and use of services. Furthermore, in order to address unemployment adequately, in particular youth unemployment, and new employment trends, especially in the context of digital economy, it is important to have extensive, sound and comparable statistical data.

(8) European statistics relating to persons and households are currently collected on the basis of a number of legislative acts covering surveys on persons and households, demographic statistics, population and housing censuses and data mainly collected from administrative sources. Some data are also gathered from business surveys. Despite significant improvements in recent years, there is a need to further integrate and streamline the data collection for statistics in a more holistic manner, based on surveys conducted on persons and households throughout the Union. In order to obtain sound data for research and policy‐making, it is essential to increase investment in high‐quality, more accurate and holistic data collection, because sound data are a pre‐condition for responsible policy‐making.

(9) To improve data quality and efficiency, the use of administrative records should be encouraged to the extent possible. The possibility of using administrative sources for statistical purposes has already widened significantly, thanks to technological advances. The use of administrative sources should be further actively promoted in the area of social statistics, while always ensuring the quality, in particular the accuracy, timeliness and comparability of those statistics. Other data sources adapted to persons or relevant subjects which cannot be accessed through administrative records should also be maintained, while safeguarding the right to the protection of personal data.

(10) The Commission Communication of 10 August 2009 on the production method of EU statistics: a vision for the next decade emphasised the increasing use of multiple data sources and innovative data collection methods as well as the growing importance of harmonising statistical concepts and methods across domains. It called for a new generation of statistical law that would address broader areas.

(11) In 2011, the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) established by Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council endorsed the Wiesbaden Memorandum on a New Conceptual Design for Household and Social Statistics, according to which the European surveys that provide data relating to persons and households should be streamlined, and additionally less frequent microdata collection should be used to complement those core social surveys. Furthermore, access to administrative data should be enhanced, and the re‐use of existing data sources and access to new data sources should be developed at Union and national level.

(12) The European Statistical System (ESS) is committed to engaging all users in a proactive manner by meeting their demands in a responsive manner and to reinforcing cooperation between the Commission (Eurostat), the national statistical institutes (NSIs), the national central banks, the European Statistical Advisory Committee and the Union agencies. It is therefore of the utmost importance that input by all stakeholders, including policy‐makers, researchers and academics, data producers, civil society and other interest groups, be duly taken into account when adapting and modernising the social surveys.

(13) Those developments need to be gradually streamlined and statistical law in the area of social statistics needs to be modernised in order to ensure that high‐quality social indicators are produced in a more integrated, adaptable, flexible, efficient and timely manner, in order to respond to developments in society. At the same time, due consideration must be given to the needs of users, to the burden on respondents, to Member States’ capacities and resources, to the reliability and accuracy of the methods used, to the technical feasibility of producing the statistics, to the time within which statistics can be available and to the reliability of the results.

(14) In particular, none of the measures taken for the purpose of applying this Regulation should impose significant additional costs which result in a disproportionate or unjustified burden on the respondents and the Member States.