The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (French:Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques), abbreviated INSEE (French pronunciation: ​[inse]), is the French national statistics bureau. It collects and publishes information about the French economy and people, and carries out the periodic national census. Headquartered in Paris, it is the French branch of Eurostat. The INSEE was created in 1946 as a successor to the Vichy regime's National Statistics Service (SNS).