Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) was established several months after the establishment of the State of Israel as an autonomous unit within the Prime Minister’s Office. The CBS operates by the power of the Statistics Ordinance 5732. The Statistics Ordinance defines the tasks of the CBS, its mode of operation, the obligation of the public to provide information to the CBS, the obligation of the CBS to safeguard the confidentiality of the information obtained, and the obligation of the CBS to publish the results of its statistical activities. The functions of the CBS are the following: to perform statistical activities and projects regarding the State and its population, in the fields of health, wellbeing, education, economy etc., as well as on the subjects of physical, geographic and ecological indices and to publish the results; to cooperate with State offices and other bodies in order to conduct statistical projects and to publish their results; to prepare, in consultation with the Public Council for Statistics, multi-annual general schemes for the statistical activities of State offices; to decide, in conjunction with the Public Council for Statistics and the bodies concerned, on uniform statistical classifications for the use by Government offices; to collect and publish information on statistical projects that are performed or planned by or for the Bureau or State offices.