A statistical file system

The paper is a translation of parts of the paper, Elektronmaskinene og statistikkens framtidige utforming, presented for the 7th Meeting of Nordic Statisticians in Helsingfors 1960. The original paper also contained considerations about future developments in electronic data processing equipment.This paper is based on the assumption that the society shall continue to grow both in size and complexity. The condition lor growth in a wanted direction is, however, that the decision-making units will at any time have access to an increasing amount of information describing the different aspects of the structure and changes of the society. This seems to represent an extremely requiring task for the statisticians. The statisticians have so far been able to satisfy reasonable requirements partly by utilizing electronic data processing equipment. The development of these technical tools is probably at least as fast as the general development of the society and if we accept the electronic data processing systems as tools we want to utilize, the chances of being able to keep up with the increasing requirements seem to be favorable