Legal Guidelines

Surveys for official statistics are regulated by the Federal Statistics Law. Since the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany, several federal statistics laws have been enacted: the StatGes 1953, the BStatG 1980, as well as the currently valid BStatG 1987. The Federal Statistics Law of 1987 also regulates data circulation for scientific purposes, i.e. the law contains the legal principles which allow data circulation for scientific purposes in the form of a Scientific Use File.

• Federal Statistics Law 1987

For the implementation of specific federal statistics,  an additional  specific legal principle is needed. The legal basis of the Microcensus is the Microcensus Law. For the Microcensuses between 1996 and 2004, this was the Microcensus Law of 1996. Since the end of January 2005 it has been replaced by the Microcensus Law of 2005. The new Microcensus Law for the first time allows the collection of data from naturalised Germans.

• Microcensus Law 1996
• Microcensus Law 2005