Assuring quality in the new data ecosystem: Mind the gap between data and statistics!

Abstract

Drawing on recent work to develop the United Nations National Quality Assurance Frameworks Manual for Official Statistics to respond to the new data ecosystem, this paper addresses three important questions now facing the statistical community: (1) How can official statistics assure the quality of data from administrative and other sources? (2) Can the quality assurance framework for official statistics be applied to data as opposed to statistics? (3) What other implications does the difference between data and statistics have for the role of official statistics in the new data ecosystem? The paper argues that statistical offices should strongly support the establishment of national data stewards but should not take on such a role themselves. Mixing responsibilities for data and official statistics risks both undermining official statistics and not doing justice to the need to develop data as an asset in a responsible way.