The authors analyze principles and structure of the Eurostat metadata formation system from the perspective of the possibility of its adaptation to modern development conditions and implementing international statistical standards essential for countries of the Customs Union (CU) and the emerging Common Economic Space (CES). More specifically, is given the characteristic of the level of metadata unification for the following areas: concepts and definitions, classifications, standard codes of indicators, legislation and methodological standards. Questions of creating statistical glossary and international database of national metadata are considered; conclusions on the implementation of the process of metadata unification the for CU and CES member countries is formulated.

The article reveals the essence and elements of the statistical methodology. Based on the classic understanding of statistical methodology a more general approach is proposed. According to this approach characteristics of positive and normative methodology of statistical science are considered. Commonality statistics shares with humanitarian knowledge and natural sciences, is shown. The authors' perspective on the system of scientific methods in economics is presented; examples of the use of common methods (measurement and classification) in statistical research are given.

The author of this article reports on the preparation for the 2016 Russia Census of Agriculture. Questions of legal support of the major statistical work are reviewed; methodological and organizational support of the event is analyzed. Emphasis is given to the features of the upcoming agricultural census program, following optimization of the expense budget, as well as to the list of indicators, included in the draft questionnaires, which has undergone significant reduction [especially when it came to agricultural enterprises, peasant (farm) enterprises and individual entrepreneurs] compared to the 2006 All-Russia Census of Agriculture. Activities, that should be undertaken over the coming years amid the preparation for the 2016 Russia Census of Agriculture, are characterized.

The author describes the regulatory framework governing the development, maintenance and use of Russia classifications, structure and design features of the OKVED2 OKPD2 compared with current OKVED-2007 and OKPD-2007. Principles of harmonization of Russia (national) and international (regional) classifications are considered. Emphasis is placed on the fact that these new versions of classifications have undergone significant structural changes, which will require a large-scale work on recoding of virtually all of the available statistical information resources and recalculating retrospective time series of statistical indicators.

The review covers the most fundamental aspects of organizational and methodological support of the Federal statistical observation «2015 Socio-demographic survey (micro census of population)». These issues are addressed by the author in the context of the features of both the statistical monitoring technology for this observation (marking by enumerators the responses in electronic questionnaires using portable tablet computers), and micro census program, adapted to the conditions of reduced funding for this kind of work.

This article describes the Rosstat Information Technology System, its current state and development prospects. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the processes occurring inside the Central office and territorial bodies of the Federal State Statistics Service in connection with the planning, collecting, processing and dissemination of statistical information. The author also considers changes in work, activities and responsibilities of TOGS that will be led to by the transition to a centralized system for collecting, processing and dissemination of statistical information.

The article reveals possibilities for the comprehensive analysis of modern family based on information from population census. Six key analysis directions are determined. Diagnostics of transformation happening to the family as an institution on the basis of data of family statistics is carried out. Several specific illustrations of new phenomena and new issues concerning family activities, family/society interaction area are discussed.

The paper summarizes the results of a study of regional macroeconomic factors that determine the level of economic activity of the Russian population aged 50-59 and 60-72. Data of the Federal State Statistics Service for the period from 2009 to 2011 was examined. There were significant factors (such as welfare, employment, urbanization, health and environment and the degree of comfort of living in the region), influencing the level of economic activity of older people.

The article presents an overview of business trends in the financial services sector, based on the results of a survey held at the end of 2013 by Higher School of Economics jointly with the Information and Publishing Center «Statistics of Russia». The methodology is based on an international practice of sectoral business tendencies monitoring taking into account peculiarities of the Russian economy at the current stage. More than 2,6 thousand top managers of financial institutions were questioned in order to obtain their estimates of the level and changes of key indicators. The analysis of opinions, sentiment and expectations of economic agents allowed to characterize the features and development trends of the sector in 2013, to identify the dominant constraints, as well as to form a short-term forecast for the first half of 2014. The study revealed that despite the stagnation of the Russian economy and ambiguous prospects for the world economy, financial market in general, according to his agents’ estimation, still retains stability and potential for further development. Endogenous systemic factors, mainly the uncertainty of the economic situation in Russia, as well as legal and institutional problems, made more negative impact on financial market than global environment. According to authors’ point of view, whilst building up exterior and interior barriers in activities of financial institutions, positive short-term forecasts of their top managers, as well as established long-term benchmarks of country’s economic policy, are unlikely to be fully implemented.

Increase in foreign exchange reserves in developing countries has led to the rapid growth of the number and economic power of the sovereign wealth funds, which are state funds. The following common features of the Funds are: firstly, they belong to the state; secondly, they do not guarantee a stream of constant payments, as, for example, pension funds do; thirdly, they are managed separately from the foreign exchange reserves. In addition, the Funds have some features arising from their nature, for instance, the lack of regular payments contributes to long-term investment strategies.

The author of this article examines different aspects of quality management in the official statistics using the example of the Republic of Azerbaijan. For quality management system, corresponding organizational, legal and institutional environment is created. This paper successively presents theoretical and methodological foundations, practical steps and human resources strengthening, as well as future plans for quality management in the official statistics.

Characteristics of the Eurasian Economic Commission and its structural unit - the Department of Statistics are given, along with those of the Advisory Committee on Statistics of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Activities of the Department of Statistics and the Advisory Committee on Statistics in the field of statistics are described.