Official statistics
Official statistics are statistics published by government agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations as a public good. They provide quantitative or qualitative information on all major areas of citizens' lives, such as economic and social development, living conditions, health, education, and the environment.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, statistics were a method for counting and listing populations and State resources. The term statistics comes from the Neo-Latin statisticum collegium and refers to science of the state. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, official statistics are statistics disseminated by the national statistical system, excepting those that are explicitly not to be official".
Governmental agencies at all levels, including municipal, county, and state administrations, may generate and disseminate official statistics. This broader possibility is accommodated by later definitions. For example:
Official statistics result from the collection and processing of data into statistical information by a government institution or international organization. They are then disseminated to help users develop their knowledge about a particular topic or geographical area, make comparisons between countries or understand changes over time. Official statistics make information on economic and social development accessible to the public, allowing the impact of government policies to be assessed, thus improving accountability.
Aim
Official statistics provide a picture of a country or different phenomena through data, and images such as graph and maps. Statistical information covers different subject areas. It provides basic information for decision making, evaluations and assessments at different levels.The goal of statistical organizations is to produce relevant, objective and accurate statistics to keep users well informed and assist good policy and decision-making.
Various categories
The Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics were adopted in 1992 by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and subsequently endorsed as a global standard by the United Nations Statistical Commission.According to the first Principle "Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation".
The categorization of the domains of official statistics has been further developed in the Classification of Statistical Activities, endorsed by the Conference of European Statisticians and various other bodies.
Most common indicators used in official statistics
Statistical indicators provide an overview of the social, demographic and economic structure of the society. Moreover, these indicators facilitate comparisons between countries and regions.For population, the main indicators concern demographics, such as:
- Total population
- Population density
- Population by age
- Life expectancy at different ages
- Foreign born
- Foreigners in population
- Total fertility rate
- Infant mortality
In the employment category:
- Employment rate
- Unemployment rate
- Youth unemployment rate
- Economic activity rate
- Employment in major sectors: agriculture, industry, services
- Gross Domestic Product
- Gross Domestic Product per capita
- Real GDP growth rate
- GDP by major economic sectors: agriculture, industry, services
- Consumer price index
- Purchasing Power Parity
- Exchange rate
- Gross external debt
- Imports and exports of goods and services
- Balance of payments
- Trade balance
- Major import and export partners
- Land use
- Water supply and consumption
- Environmental protection expenditure
- Generation and treatment of waste
- Chemical use
- Total energy consumption
- Primary energy sources
- Energy consumption in transport
- Electricity consumption
- Consumption of renewable energy sources
Users
Users with a general interest
Users with a general interest include the media, schools and the general public. They use official statistics in order to be informed on a particular topic and to observe trends within the society of a local area, country, region of the world.Users with a business interest
Users with a business interest include decision makers and users with a particular interest for which they want more detailed information. For them, official statistics are an important reference, providing information on the phenomena or circumstances their own work is focusing on. For instance, those users will take some official statistics into consideration before launching a product, or deciding on a specific policy or on a marketing strategy. As with the general interest users, this group does not usually have a good understanding of statistical methodologies, but they need more detailed information than the general users.Users with a research interest
Users with a research interest are universities, consultants and government agencies. They generally understand something about statistical methodology and want to dig deeper into the facts and the statistical observations; they have an analytical purpose in inventing or explaining interrelations of causes and effects of different phenomena. In this field, official statistics are also used to assess a government's policies.One common point for all these users is their need to be able to trust the official information. They need to be confident that the results published are authoritative and unbiased. Producers of official statistics must maintain a reputation of professionalism and independence.
The statistical system must be free from interference that could influence decisions on the choice of sources, methods used for data collection, the selection of results to be released as official, and the timing and form of dissemination. Statistical business processes should be transparent and follow international standards of good practice.
Statistical programs are decided on an annual or multi-annual basis by governments in many countries. They also provide a way to judge the performance of the statistical system.
Producers at the national level
Official statistics are collected and produced by national statistical organizations, or other organizations that form part of the national statistical system in countries where statistical production is de-centralized. These organizations are responsible for producing and disseminating official statistical information, providing the highest quality data. Quality in the context of official statistics is a multi-faceted concept, consisting of components such as relevance, completeness, timeliness, accuracy, accessibility, clarity, cost-efficiency, transparency, comparability and coherence.The core tasks of NSOs, for both centralized and decentralized systems, are determining user needs and filtering these for relevance. Then they transform the relevant user needs into measurable concepts to facilitate data collection and dissemination. The NSO is in charge of the coordination between statistical producers and of ensuring the coherence and compliance of the statistical system to agreed standards. The NSO has a coordination responsibility as its President/Director General represents the entire national system of official statistics, both at the national and at international levels.
Production process
The production process of official statistics comprises 8 phases, as documented in the Generic Statistical Business Process Model :- Specify Needs
- Design
- Build
- Collect
- Process
- Analyze
- Disseminate
- Evaluate
Data revision
In order to understand the accuracy of economic data and the possible impact of data errors on macroeconomic decision-making, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has published a dataset that records both initial real-time data estimates, and subsequent data revisions, for a large number of macroeconomic series. A similar dataset for Europe has been developed by the Euro-Area Business Cycle Network.