Page 64 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS179 Per Nymand-Andersen

Modernising statistics: Communicating the
wealth of statistics in a digital age
Per Nymand-Andersen
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Unless a policy - and the statistics underpinning it - can be explained, it
will not be understood and the institution and policymaker carrying it
out will lose credibility and trust.

Abstract
Independent statistics are fundamental if we are to present and compare the
structures and dynamics of our societies. Safeguarding and communicating
facts and figures and facilitating the use of good quality statistics for evidence-
based policymaking contribute to sound and sustainable policies for the
collective benefits of citizens. Trustworthy statistics have a welfare-enhancing
effect and constitute a knowledge base that is fundamental to credible and
sound decision-making.
This paper demonstrates the need for the statistics community to use statistics
as a strategic asset and to proactively provide the professional user
community with statistics and sound methodologies which are easily
understandable, presentable and digitally reusable as part of its efforts to
reach out to a wider professional and public audience.
Communicating statistics is a fundamental responsibility of those institutions
engaged in official statistics, both to meet their transparency and
accountability objectives, and also to crowd out lowquality statistics and data-
feeding sentiment-based policy strategies. The use of low quality and
sentiment-based information may well amplify and have contagion effects,
not only on the lack of trust but also on the use of official statistics.
Consequently, the reputational loss goes far beyond those institutions
involved in providing official statistics.

Keywords
Communication; strategy; independence; quality; official statistics; trust

1. Introduction – the challenges of digital transformation
In today’s open market economies and modern societies, there are ample
and freely rendered private and public digital data sources of varying quality
for both national and international policy use. The effect of digital

European Central Bank, per.nymand@ecb.int. The views expressed in this paper are those of
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the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Central Bank. Further details of
the author: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pernymand-andersen-81609913
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