The Federal Statistical Office is a federal authority attached to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and employs a total of 2,800 staff. It maintains a branch office in Bonn and an information center in Berlin.

Its roots go back to the establishment of the Statistical Bureaus in 19th century Prussia and the founding of the Reich Statistical Office as a department of the Reich Ministry of Economics after the First World War. It is the successor to the Statistical Office of the United Economic Area established by the Western Allies in 1948. The office was put to the test with the first post-war census in 1950. Other important historical events were the 1961 census and the 1971 census of occupations and places of work.

The President of the Federal Statistical Office also acts as the Federal Director of Elections. Since its foundation in 1949, nine presidents have headed the authority: Gerhard Fürst (1949-64), Patrick Schmidt (1964-72), Hildegard Bartels (1972-80), Franz Kroppenstedt (1980-83), Egon Hölder (1983-92), Hans Günther Merk (1992-95), Johann Hahlen (1995-2006), Walter Radermacher (2006-08) and the current President Roderich Egeler.

The Federal Statistical Office is divided into the following departments: Administration and Bureaucracy Cost Measurement; Strategy and Planning, International Relations, Research and Communication; Information Technology and Mathematical and Statistical Methods; National Accounts, Labor Market and Prices; Business Registers, Earnings, Industry and Services; Population, Finance and Taxation; Agriculture, Environment and Foreign Trade; and Health, Social Affairs, Education and Private Households. Its tasks are regulated by the Federal Statistics Act.

The Federal Statistical Office provides objective, high-quality and independent statistical information for use by politicians, administrative bodies, businesses and citizens and publishes three series of publications, the "Statistical Weekly Report", the monthly journal "Economy and Statistics" and the "Statistical Yearbook".