National Statistics Institute (Spain)

The National Statistics Institute (Spanish: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) is the official government agency in Spain that collects statistics about demography, the economy, and Spanish society. It is an autonomous organization responsible for overall coordination of statistical services of the General State Administration in monitoring, control and supervision of technical procedures. Every 10 years, the institute conducts a national census.

The oldest statistics agency of Spain and the predecessor of the current agency was the General Statistics Commission of the Kingdom, created on 3 November 1856 during the reign of Isabella II. The so-then prime minister Ramón María Narváez, 1st Duke of Valencia, approved a decree creating this agency within his Office and ordering that people with recognized ability in this matter were part of it.

On 1 May 1861 the Commission changed its name to General Statistics Board and their first work was to do a population census.

By a decree of 12 September 1870, prime minister Francisco Serrano, 1st Duke of la Torre, created the Geographic Institute and in 1873 this Institute changed its name to Geographic and Statistic Institute assuming the competences of the General Statistics Board. In 1890, the titularity of the agency was transferred from the Prime Minister's Office to the Ministry of Development.

Between 1921 and 1939, change its name many times. In the same way, the agency was transferred from one ministry to another, passing through the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of the Presidency, and the Ministry of Labour.

After the approval of the Law of 31 December 1945, the statistical services were grouped around the new Directorate-General of the National Statistics Institute (INE), with a mission to develop and refine the demographic, economic and social statistics already existing, creating new statistics and coordination with the statistical offices of provincial and municipal areas.

At the end of 1964 the first computer was installed at the INE. It was a first-generation IBM 1401, for which a team was formed consisting of four statistics faculty and ten technicians. In the four years following it was possible that said computer would operate at its full capacity.

The Public Statistics Act of 1989 transformed the Institute into an autonomous agency.