Skopje, 1 June 2022 (MIA) – Wednesday marks the 77^th anniversary of the national statistical system in the Republic of North Macedonia and the State Statistical Office. “We’d started modestly with a small number of people, who were very enthusiastic. We’re celebrating the milestone with nearly 250 employees at the Statistical Office and with a huge fund of data that are published regularly,” State Statistical Office Director Apostol Simovski said. He said he was pleased that a population census was organized last year – the first one in 19 years. Simovski also announced that an agricultural census will take place in 2023. Statistical data, he stressed, is a real reflection of the situation in the country, it reflects things as they are – sometimes to our delight, other times not. On Wednesday, the State Statistical Office released the third batch of the 2021 Census data regarding the educational and economic characteristics of the population and characteristics involving disabilities of the population. “These data will paint the real picture – the state involving workforce, the level of education of the people, and an array of cross-referenced data that will pave the way for a lot of opportunities and analyses and that will be of immense use in real life,” stated Simovski. According to him, it would be difficult to sum up the data released today in one sentence. “We shouldn’t expect that our population is the most educated, that we are the most active population economically in the world. They are a true reflection of the state of the state,” the head of the State Statistical Office noted. The key challenge facing the State Statistical Office is recruiting staff. “A specific knowledge is required, which unfortunately, cannot be acquired in our education process because there is no faculty of statistics.” Simovski said adding that the institution hasn’t had a new employee in the past four years. He announced that data according to the so called grid method – characteristics of the population on an area of square kilometer should be released by the end of the summer and by the end of the year alongside a census atlas, in which all numerical data will be drawn into maps.