Background

The Department of Statistics, Malaysia was established in 1949 under the Statistics Ordinance 1949 and was then known as Bureau of Statistics. The statistics produced then was limited to external trade and estate agriculture.

In 1965, the name of Bureau of Statistics was changed to the Department of Statistics, Malaysia and was operating under the provisions of Statistics Act 1965. The Department's functions and role had expanded whereby the data/information collected included the economy and social areas.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia is a premier government agency entrusted with the responsibility to collect, interpret and disseminate latest and real time statistics in the monitoring of national economic performance and social development.

The Department's headquarters is located in the Federal Government Administrative Center, Putrajaya and has state offices in every state. Operational offices were set up in several states to further strengthen the data collection activities.

Role

To increase and broaden its role as the premier agency in the field of statistics towards establishing a quality, user-oriented and timely information system for the formulation of policies for national development planning and administration.

Function

Under the "Statistics Act 1965 (Revised 1989)", the main functions of the department are:

• to collect and interpret statistics for the purpose of formulation or implementation of government policies in whatever fields as needed by the government or for fulfilling the requirements of trade, commerce, industry, agriculture or others
• to disseminate statistics which have been collected or interpretation based on statistics collected, not only to government agencies but also to authorities or persons where the information is useful to them