Mikrodatalla

Mikrodatalla is a term used in statistics and data science to describe a dataset organized as a table of microdata records. In this sense, mikrodata refers to unit-level information about individuals, households or other observational units, and a mikrodatatabell (the table) presents these units as rows with variables such as age, income, education, and geographic identifiers as columns. Unlike published aggregates or summaries, mikrodata tables retain heterogeneity across units and enable analyses at the level of individuals or households.

In practice the term is used in Swedish contexts to discuss datasets that may be shared with researchers under controlled conditions. Mikrodata tables support a wide range of analyses, including regression, clustering, and experimental design, and are used by national statistical offices, universities, and research institutes. Data quality considerations include variable coding, missing values, sample design, and weighting, all of which influence reproducibility.

Because microdata can reveal sensitive information, access is typically restricted. Direct identifiers are removed or obfuscated, and additional safeguards such as data access agreements, secure computation environments, and, in some cases, simulated or synthetic data are employed. Public-use microdata tables may be heavily curated, aggregated, or replaced with synthetic microdata to protect privacy while preserving analytical usefulness.

Examples of where mikrodatalla concepts appear include national statistics portals, research data centers, and international microdata projects. See also microdata, anonymization, synthetic data, and data governance.