Introduction to Data Modeling - UN ESCAP...Introduction to Data Modeling Statistics Division, September 2019 Data Structure Definitions • DSDs are a description of the data model

Introduction to Data Modeling

Statistics Division, September 2019

Data Structure Definitions

• DSDs are a description of the data model

• SDMX provides a framework to build DSDs

• To design a DSD, we first need to find concepts that

identify and describe our data

• Each concept describes something about the data

Building DSDs

Building DSDs

Concepts

Dimensions

Primary Measure

(Obs. Value)

Attributes

Dimension or Attribute?

• Concepts that identify data, should be made dimensions

• Concepts that provide additional information about data,

should be made attributes

If a concept is a dimension, it is possible

to have time series that are different only

in the value of this concept

Time Dimension

• TIME dimension provides the observation time

• FREQUENCY dimension describes interval between

observations (yearly, quarterly, daily, etc.)

Representation

Coded

• Based on code lists

• For example:Country, Sex, Indicator

Un-coded with format

• Format specified

• For example: postal code with 5 digits

Un-coded free text

• Any text is valid

• For example: footnote

Examples of Code Lists

Representation of Concepts

• Dimensions must always be coded

• Attributes can be coded or un-coded

SDG Data Structure

• Developed by the IAEG-SDG Working Group on SDMX

• Version 1.0 released in June 2019 (link)

SDG DSD – Dimensions

Frequency

Reporting Type

Series

Reference Area

Sex

Age

Degree of urbanization

Income or wealth quantile

Education level

Occupation

Disability status

Economic activity

Product type

Custom breakdown

Composite breakdown

Time period

SDG DSD – Dimensions

• Reporting type: ‘N’ for national, ‘G’ for global

• Sex: when series refer to female population, use ‘F’ – for

example: Number of seats held by women in national

parliaments

• Custom breakdown: for non-standard breakdown, ad-hoc

• Composite breakdown: combination of few seldom used

breakdowns

SDG DSD – Code Lists

• Dimensions with breakdown have a code _T to denote the

total or no breakdown. For example CL_URBANISATION

• Code list CL_AREA has countries and groupings. For

country-level use, the code list needs to be expanded with

regions, cities, provinces, etc.

Code Description

_T Total

U Urban

R Rural

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