The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic publishes data on the economy, population, wages, employment, prices and individual sectors, which are available free of charge in its databases. For companies, it is an underrated resource with two main uses. The first is the preparation of project applications and business plans, where the baseline situation must be supported by data from a verifiable source – a reference to official statistics carries significantly more weight in evaluation than one's own estimate. The second is market research before expanding into a region or opening a new location, which can reveal the number of inhabitants, their age structure, purchasing power, and the number of businesses in the sector. The data can also be exported programmatically via an interface.
See also: Open data and public registers, Sample representativeness, Feasibility study.
