Sarajevo, 20 October 2023 - On the occasion of 20 October, European Statistics Day, the UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund and the Agency of Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHAS) would like to raise awareness of all policy makers, private and civil society sector and population in general of the importance of updated and easily accessible statistical data for socio-economic development. This comes at a time of rapid demographic changes with recorded low fertility and high migration across the developed world leading to significant structural changes in demography and to population ageing. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, just over 50 years ago there were almost 10 young people to each person older than 65. Nowadays, this is close to one young person to one older person. Such rapid changes require constant monitoring of development measures and adjustments to provide adequate public services to different population groups.

To enable faster access to and dissemination of statistical data for experts and policy makers to conduct timely and relevant statistical analysis, UNFPA and BHAS have partnered over the last few years to develop a statistical portal for easy access to existing statistical data to shed light on demographic changes in the country and enable relevant partners to draw conclusions and recommendations for population development measures that will improve the lives of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“In recent years, more than ever, statistical data have become so important to understand where we are today, and where we are going from here in terms of population development and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. The UNFPA has been a vocal advocate and supporter of statistical institutions in the country with adequate human and financial resources for regular data collection through household surveys and population and household censuses. By strengthening capacities of BHAS for data collection, analysis and dissemination, we will enable many researchers, policy makers and media to use data in their daily work. We praise the work of BHAS and entity institutes of statistics and remain staunch supporters of their work and development”, said UNFPA Representative in BiH John Kennedy Mosoti. 

Vesna Ćužić, director of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointed out: "Official statistics retain their indispensable role as a reliable source of data, providing valuable insights into trends, patterns and behaviours, which ultimately leads to an improved decision-making process and better public policies at all government levels, and foster social and economic development, while helping to prevent misinformation. Accordingly, the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is dedicated to strengthening the role of official statistics. Fulfilling its mission of producing and disseminating statistical data, the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with UNFPA, created a "demographic resilience" portal that provides valuable data on the demographic situation and human capital (data on the population, natural population change, population projections, education, the state of the labour market, etc.). We believe that the presented data will be useful to the creators of development and population policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as to a wider range of users."

Demographic Resilience portal for Bosnia and Herzegovina could be accessed either through the BHAS web site https://bhas.gov.ba or directly at https://pdo.bhas.gov.ba. In the following weeks, similar portals for dissemination of statistical data for both entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be launched by the Federal Institute of Statistics and the Republic Institute of Statistics of the Republika Srpska at their web sites.