World Statistics Day 2015
Welcome to the Conference

It does not happen often that statisticians are in the limelight merely as representatives of their profession, and not as number crunchers or as bearers of good or bad news. On World Statistics Day we can celebrate our achievements and think about future development paths. We have a good reason to celebrate: the second World Statistics Day declared by the UN General Assembly came at a time when statistics are globally recognised as indispensable in evidence based decision-making. The motto of WSD 2015, “Better Data. Better Lives” is appropriate: better data lead to better decisions which eventually do make people’s life better.

Hungarian statisticians have an additional reason to celebrate: following our efforts leading to the adoption of the GA resolution on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, the proposal for a resolution on the observation of the World Statistics Day was also brought to the General Assembly of the United Nations by Hungary.

World Statistics Day 2015 is observed at the time when the Sustainable Development Goals for the coming 15 years are launched, when politicians, policy makers, researchers, businesses, civil societies and hopefully the general public actually do start working on the design and implementation of policies, programmes and activities to achieve these important goals and reach the specific targets.

Statisticians have a special role to play in this process. We are mandated by the UN bodies to construct the indicator framework and produce most of the indicators that enable decision-makers and people to monitor progress towards achieving the SDGs. Our national stakeholders expect us to produce indicators that are fit for purpose, be it for SDG-monitoring or for any other purpose they use statistics for.

In order to best serve the public, we need to ensure that official statistics remain sustainable, are of high quality and trusted all over the world, that our products reach the users and the potential users, that we incorporate new types of data sources into official statistics, improve the analytic potential of statistics and make the presentation of statistics more attractive. In short, we have to modernise official statistics, making the best of the opportunities offered by the adoption of the SDGs and by the data revolution.

The international conference organised by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and other organisations of the statistical profession in Hungary will deal with such issues. The organisers are grateful to the distinguished speakers and participants of the panel discussions for sharing their insights and experiences with the audience.

I hope that the conference will contribute to the modernisation efforts of official statistics through sharing thoughts and practices.

I also hope that the attractions and delights of the beautiful capital of Hungary, Budapest, will provide a pleasant background to the conference.

I am looking forward to welcoming you in Budapest in October.