France has sophisticated statistical tools that are envied the world over. The Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE) collects, produces, analyses and publishes valuable information on the French economy and society. Its data are always based on either a complete census of a population or a fully representative sample; they are reliable. Even so, they do not answer every question.
Thus, every ten to fifteen years, the ministry responsible for transport—now the statistical data and research department of the Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition—conducts a national transport survey. Its purpose is to understand the travel patterns of households living in metropolitan France and their use of both public and private transport. The survey covers several levels: households, individuals and vehicles. The sampling frame for the latest survey, comprising just over 20,000 households, consisted of the master sample produced by the 1999 population census—almost twenty years earlier.
Then, when more detailed information is needed to decide on a public investment, it is supplemented by a quantitative market-research study covering a limited area. Finally, some industries commission their own detailed and often interesting studies: the Company Vehicle Observatory (OVE), the Association of French Motorway and Toll Facility Companies (ASFA), insurance, online credit…
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The difficulties of compiling statistics
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