The growing demand for statistics: challenges and opportunities

1. The growing demand for statistics: challenges and opportunities Pilar Martin-Guzman Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

2. Significant increase in the demand for statistical information • A challenging issue for official statisticians • But every challenge is an opportunity

3. Statisticians have taken advantage of these opportunities • Statistical information has improved • A “silent revolution” (Domingo Solans) • But, do current statistics satisfy the users?

4. The demand increases • Traditional users grow and expand their fields of interest • New users join in • The scenario changes • Users are more exacting on quality issues

5. Traditional users • International organisations (IMF) • Governments • Market players and enterprises • Researchers • Public at large

6. Three groups of countries • Well established democracies with market economies • Countries in transition from non-democratic regimes with centrally planned economies • Consolidating democracies

7. Some newcomers • Supranational organisations (ECB) • Decision makers at regional and local level

8. Changes in the scenario • Globalisation • The ICT revolution

9. Some challenges from globalisation • Massive migration inflows • Internationalisation of the markets • New interest in remote countries

10. Some challenges from the ICT revolution • New indicators are necessary • Some of the present statistics become irrelevant • Frequent up-dating of definitions and classifications

11. The elements of quality • Relevance • Coherence • Timeliness • Interpretability • Accessibility • Accuracy

12. Perception of the user • Not necessarily coincident with the opinion of the producer • It depends very much on expectations (statistical literacy) • The impossibility to replicate surveys

13. Decision makers and market players • Accuracy versus timeliness • What is really important about accuracy is not so much increasing it as measuring it (Sir Claus Moser, 2003)

14. Researchers • Consistency of time series • Accessibility versus confidentiality • Statistics used in new research fields: risks and opportunities.

15. Groups deserving special attention • The new decision makers • The media

16. Conclusions • For a positive perception of the users, improving the statistical production is important: • This is the task of official statisticians

17. Conclusions • But improving the statistical liteacy of the users is also important • And this is a task for all statisticians