Statistics as a key source of open data

The national statistical agencies are an indispensable element for information system of a democratic society. They are one of the main bodies responsible for producing, collecting, classifying, publishing and disseminating high value data at government, economy and citizens services. That is, official statistical agencies should collect social, demographic and economic official data and make them available to citizens, in order to guarantee the right to access public information. These data are also essential tools to governments for making decisions, policies and strategies.

However, accessibility, ease-of-use, impartiality, punctuality and interoperability - all of which are desirable requirements when publishing open data – means, in general, an unprecedented challenge for information systems of public administration - and particularly for the National Statistics Offices, due to their large volume of data.

The ODIN project evaluates the coverage and opening of official statistics in 180 countries for a total of 21 data categories, with the aim of helping to identify gaps, promote open data policies, improve access and encourage dialogue between national statistics offices and data users. In its latest report, it is noted that there are an increasing number of statistical data published in reusable and free formats, but it is also detected that there are challenges to be overcome, both in terms of availability and quality. In the same vein, the State of open data project also find some challenges in terms of lack of information in important statistical areas such as gender equality or environment, as well as lack of capabilities related to human resources and management systems.

However, this challenge can also be seen as a unique opportunity to take the necessary leap and modernize the national statistical systems. For this, it will be necessary to find an adequate balance between current technical and human limitations, the lack of data in some areas, privacy concerns and other institutional challenges, and the need to ensure disaggregated and high quality data in an open format.

Therefore, National statistical agencies are destined to play a unique and leading role within governments when coordinating open data publishing policies. To this end, it is essential to ensure that open data and interoperability are prominent criteria in the creation, implementation and execution of national statistical platforms from now on. For this reason, the United Nations Statistical Commission is currently debating how to update the fundamental principles of official statistics and its statistical manuals to incorporate the open data principles. Another proposal recently adopted by the member countries is the development of specific platforms for monitoring the global sustainable development indicators, taking into account the open data principles. The debate will continue during the next International Open Data Conference and the UN World Data Forum for all interested parties.

Meanwhile, some countries like Mexico are taking the lead, adapting both their statistical data publication process and the structure of their National Institute of Statistics, in order to be able to lead the change that is coming.

Content prepared by Carlos Iglesias, Open data Researcher and consultan, World Wide Web Foundation.

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.