Indagini dirette e fonti amministrative: dall'alternativa all'ancora incompiuta integrazione

The focus of the paper is about the relationships between registers (an censuses) and surveys in the in the Italian official statistics. After a brief introduction on the historical background, marked by a polarization between the two strategies of data collection, the focus is on the 1980s and early '90s. Under the presidency of Guido M. Rey a new strategy is embraced, based on the integration of different data sources. The main accomplishments, and shortcomings, of this strategy are presented and discussed. The final part of the paper is devoted to a critical assessment of the still unsatisfactory state of the art today, and to broad suggestions for a reasonable way out.