01
Published whole
A figure goes out with its confidence interval, its sample size and the date it was collected. A number without those three is a rumour with a decimal point.
Official statistics / the canton / since 1919
Numbers,
published
whole.
Seventy series on a fixed calendar, at nine in the morning, with the method attached and nothing held back for a press conference.
Browse the catalogue1 284 610
Resident population
+0.7 % on the year
2.9 %
Unemployment, seasonally adjusted
−0.2 pt on the year
71 400
Cross-border commuters
+2.4 % on the year
104.6
Consumer price index, 2020 = 100
+1.1 % on the year
A statistic that arrives without its method is decoration. We publish the method, the sample, the interval and the revision history in the same release, at the same hour, whether the number is convenient or not.
Bureau Vektor is the canton’s statistical office. It has been publishing since 1919 and has missed its own calendar four times, each of which is documented on the methods page.
Nothing here is embargoed. Ministers read the figures at the same moment as everybody else, which is a rule the bureau fought for in 1974 and would fight for again.
VK-042, one year
Public transport journeys, millions, by month. Provisional for November and December, as always at this point in the year.
Three commitments
In the enabling act of 1919, in almost these words.
02
Revised in public
Every revision keeps its predecessor online at the same address. You can always see what we said before and how far off we were.
03
Never rounded early
Rounding happens once, at the point of presentation, and never in the pipeline. Two tables that disagree in the last digit are a bug, not a style.
Seventy series
Fourteen of them below. Every one is downloadable in full, back to its first year.
- VK-001Resident population by communeMonthly1962–CSV, JSON, Parquet
- VK-004Births, deaths, migrationMonthly1876–CSV, JSON
- VK-011Registered unemploymentMonthly1991–CSV, JSON, Parquet
- VK-014Vacancies by sectorQuarterly2004–CSV, JSON
- VK-020Consumer price indexMonthly1922–CSV, JSON
- VK-026Rents, new lettingsQuarterly1998–CSV
- VK-031Dwellings completedQuarterly1945–CSV, JSON
- VK-038Cross-border commutersQuarterly1996–CSV, JSON
- VK-042Public transport journeysMonthly2008–CSV, JSON, Parquet
- VK-049Overnight staysMonthly1934–CSV, JSON
- VK-055Electricity consumptionMonthly1971–CSV, JSON
- VK-061School enrolmentAnnual1880–CSV
- VK-068Cantonal tax receiptsAnnual1919–CSV, JSON
- VK-070Voter turnout by communePer ballot1848–CSV, JSON, Parquet
The release calendar
Set a year ahead and not moved for convenience. First quarter shown.
- 06.01Registered unemployment, DecemberVK-01109:00
- 13.01Consumer price index, DecemberVK-02009:00
- 20.01Resident population, year endVK-00109:00
- 03.02Registered unemployment, JanuaryVK-01109:00
- 10.02Public transport journeys, Q4VK-04209:00
- 17.02Dwellings completed, Q4VK-03109:00
- 03.03Registered unemployment, FebruaryVK-01109:00
- 10.03Cross-border commuters, Q4VK-03809:00
- 24.03Cantonal tax receipts, previous yearVK-06809:00
- 07.04Registered unemployment, MarchVK-01109:00
- 14.04Rents, new lettings, Q1VK-02609:00
- 28.04School enrolment, spring countVK-06109:00
The interesting figure and the reliable figure are rarely the same figure, and only one of them is ours to publish.
Tarek Hamdi, head of methods
Six desks
Thirty statisticians and a librarian. Every series has a named owner who answers mail.
- 01PopulationNadia Christen7 staff
- 02LabourÉmile Roux6 staff
- 03PricesBettina Suter5 staff
- 04ConstructionJorge Almeida4 staff
- 05MobilityAnneke de Wit5 staff
- 06MethodsTarek Hamdi3 staff
Take it and use it
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0. Attribute the bureau, not the individual analyst.
- API
- One endpoint per series, versioned, no key, no rate limit worth mentioning.
- Bulk
- The whole catalogue as Parquet, rebuilt nightly, about 4 GB.
- Citation
- Every series page carries a citation string with the exact revision.
Corrections, queries, freedom-of-information
Four offices, one series
Genève
Head office
Rue du Recensement 4, 1204
+41 22 000 04 00
Lausanne
Household survey
Avenue de Rumine 21, 1005
+41 21 000 21 00
Sion
Alpine register
Rue de Lausanne 63, 1950
+41 27 000 63 00
Neuchâtel
Methods and revisions
Espace de l'Europe 10, 2000
+41 32 000 10 00
A correction request is answered within five working days, and if we were wrong the correction is published, not quietly applied.