One of the primary tasks of public statistics, as provided for in the Act, is the collection and the gathering of statistical data:

• from and on entities of the national economy and their activities and
• from and on natural person on their physical life and situation
• from all available sources, as defined in detail in the program of statistical surveys of public statistics or in separate laws, among other things,
  • from full research, general censuses,
  • from the research conducted with methods of representation,
  • from administrative sources.

The programme of statistical surveys of public statistics is a list setting out the thematic , subject and subjective scope and related duties.

Techniques used for transfering statistical data:

• Internet (Reporting Portal, email)
• face-to-face interview (using paper form or CAPI - interview recorded on a portable electronic device),
• telephone interview (traditional or CATI - telephone interview assisted by computer program).

Survey research

Since 2000 in all Statistical Offices, there have been units for the surveys dealing with the implementation of social and agricultural statistical research through a network of interwievers.

Surveys are carried out by various techniques, including those that use modern computer equipment.

• CAPI - (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing)
  Direct contact of interviewer with the respondent accompanied by handheld device, equipped with specialized software, supporting the implementation of the interview.
• PAPI – (Paper and Pencil Interviewing)
  The interviewer carries out the survey with respondent using a paper questionnaire.
• CATI - (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing)
  Obtaining information/ Getting answers from respondents is done through telephone connections and by using specialized computer software.
• CAWI/CAII - (Computer-Assisted Web/Internet Interviewing)
  Research technique in which online survey is monitored by a computer system. Questionnaire questions are downloaded from the website of the organizer of research and transferred through the network to any point, where is the respondent with a computer connected to the Internet. The person examined in the system CAWI / CAII, either alone or assisted by the interviewer reads questions on the screen and gives answers, which are being recorded on the target server. In 2012, this technique was used in a pilot study on household budgets.

Interviewers of public statistics carry out various research. Due to the frequency of the research the following are distinguished:

• permanent research - is carried out in a continuous manner, for example, examination of the labour force survey, the study of the headage of cattle, sheep, and poultry and livestock production, land use, the survey on retail prices of consumer goods and services
• cyclic research - carried out systematically , because there is a need for continuous monitoring of key areas. These research are repeated periodically at specified intervals, for example: adult education survey, participation of Poles in sports and physical recreation or fuel and energy consumption in households research.
• one-time research - conducted where appropriate, to collect statistical data on a field, a phenomenon or a process. Used when cyclic research is not possible or necessary.

List of all surveys to be conducted in a given calendar year is provided in the Annex to the Council of Ministers on the 'Program of Surveys of Public Statistics (PBSSP), which is updated annually, as the needs of the customers of statistical data.

Social surveys are voluntary, conducted by a representative.
Quotations and agricultural surveys are obligatory, and in the case of this research sampling is purposeful.

Research in the Lodzkie Voivodship in 2014, performs 60 terrain interviewers in:

• 27  in Statistical Office in Lodz,
• 7  in Division in Brzeziny,
• 11 in Division in Sieradz,
• 15  in Division in Piotrkow.

In the case of high load of research, there is an opportunity to engage employees, who normally performing work in the office (changing/temporary interviewers). Such employees are involved in the work on position of interviewer occasionally, depending on the needs of the statistical office.

Reporting Portal

On 1 January 2009, the Central Statistical Office introduced as valid a safe form of electronic transmission of statistical data. In accordance with the program of statistical surveys of public statistics the entities of the national economy, for which the reporting obligation was established, shall transmit the data in electronic form to the REPORTING PORTAL of CSO. The portal made available applications that allow you to fill in the on-line application form. Signing in to the reporting portal of CSO is possible through previously activated account. For selected reports at http://form.stat.gov.pl/formularze/formularze.htm applications off-line will also be made available that give you the opportunity to fill out reports on your computer, without the need for a direct connection to the Internet, and then send them electronically to public statistics.

Censuses

Both the Census on population and housing, as well as the agricultural census are obligatory research, carried out on the basis of the Census Act. They are at the same time, the greatest statistical undertakings which are taken not only in Poland but all over the world. The implementation of such projects requires full mobilization, both of the public and the State.

National Census  provides the most detailed information about the population, territorial distribution, the socio-demographic and professional structure , as well as of the socio-economic characteristics of households and families and their housing conditions and resources at all levels of the territorial division of the country: national, regional and local.

Agricultural Census  has been carried out in order to provide information in the field of agriculture in the scope of general characteristics of an agricultural holding, land use, sown area and livestock and tractors, agricultural machinery and equipment, use of fertilizers, as well aspersons working on the farm, the structure of the farm income, use of the support schemes for agriculture and methods of agricultural production (the impact of agriculture on the environment).

Administrative sources

The bodies of the Government Administration and units of local self-government, other government agencies, the authorities who run official registers and Polish National Bank free of charge shall forward to the services of the public statistics collected administrative data in the scope, form and within the time limits defined each time within the surveys program of public statistics, in particular in the form of extracts from the registers, copies: data sets, collected declarations, documents and other official recording forms, the results of measurements, environmental monitoring data and provide data from databases of information systems.

 Collections of administrative data are derived fromcentral systems, among other things: The Ministry of Finance/tax offices-an information system operated by the tax authorities; The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration - collection of SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS and vehicle records CEP; The Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture; Money For The Agricultural Social Insurance; The National Health Fund - A Central List Of Insured Persons; Agri-Food Commercial Quality Inspection; The main Office of Geodesy and Cartography-State Register of borders and surface of the units of of the territorial division of the country, and orthophoto maps of the Polish area; and distributed: Marshall's offices - Databases of Topographic Objects; powiat starosts -land records and buildings and information systems of State Labour Office; offices of gminas - real estate tax records of the EPN and communal registration sets.