The Department of Economics and Statistics in Himachal Pradesh is functioning since the year 1955-56.The Directorate of Economic & Statistics came into being with the objective to advise the state government on Economic and statistical matters for formulation of policies and plan. The mandate of the department is to assess the economic development of the state through the estimation of State Domestic product/presentation of economic scenario of the state through fact and figures, census and survey & studies.

Functions of the Department

The subject allotted to this department according to “The Business of the Government (Allocation) Rules 1971” are as below :

State Income estimation (GSDP/PCI)
Public Finance
Socio-Economic Surveys
Rural Development statistics
Census of H.P. Employees
Official Statistics
Prices Statistics
Labour Statistics
Statistical Training
Evaluation of Programmes
Co-ordination between Statistical work of other departments
Establishment, budget & account matters
Classification of H.P. Government budget and budget of local bodies

Besides above the department was allotted some additional subjects after the year 1971 :

National Sample Survey
Tribal research/studies
Housing & Building Statistics
Capital Formation
Collection of all types of statistics at block level
Index of Industrial Production
Computerisation of data
District Income Estimation
Compilation of Pensioner’s data
Economic Census

The main functions of the Department is to build firm and broad data bank for the Pradesh so as to serve as useful data base for all plan and policy formulations, bring out the estimates of GSDP/State Income and the economic growth, conduct of various studies and Surveys and coordinate various Statistical activities of different departments in the state.