The bureaucracy cost index concretises the bureaucratic burden on businesses and shows its development over time. Typical paperwork is what the index is aimed at. This includes requests, reports, labelling, statistics and evidence.

The burden barometer reflects the annual bureaucracy burden for businesses resulting from official statistics.

The barometer of burdens significantly contributes to a realistic assessment of the response burden caused by statistics, which is still "felt" ro be rather high. Less than one percent of the bureaucracy costs of businesses in Germany are caused by reporting data for official statistics.

Compliance costs are the most comprehensive measure of bureaucracy and the basis of measurement. It covers the time spent and the costs incurred by citizens, businesses and public authorities when they comply with a legal requirement. Every year, the Federal Statistical Office calculates and publishes the change in compliance costs.

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People perceive bureaucracy in different ways. The contacts with public authorities is mainly assessed from the perspective of individual life situations and the resulting requests and duties. In addition to bureaucracy cost measurement, the Federal Statistical Office, commissioned by the Federal Government, performs regular life situation surveys, asking citizens and businesses to what extent they are satisfied with authorities and their services. This internationally established approach is used as the basis for improvements as part of the Federal Government Programme for Bureaucracy Reduction and Better Regulation. The results available from the 2017 survey for the first time enable a comparison of the results over time.