Good data – comprehensive, timely and accurate – are an essential part of the world we live in. And it doesn't matter where we live, "good" data are the key to tracking and improving the quality of life at the local, national and global scales. Good data help strengthen economies and build cities and are critical to the growth of both developed and developing countries. The organizations, methods, systems and legal frameworks employed to collect, process and disseminate statistical data products make up our data infrastructure. That infrastructure is just as critical for modern societies as is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, airports and so on.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s many contributions to this infrastructure serve countless different uses and users. Our data are used by governments (big and small) to decide where new roads will go, how much money school districts will receive, and how federal funds are distributed. Economic indicators produced by the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and other federal statistical agencies provide critical data for policymakers to help monitor and improve the performance of the U.S. economy.

The Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently released a report outlining ways to modernize the “U.S. National Data Infrastructure” by leveraging new data sources. The Census Bureau and other producers of official statistics, both at home and abroad, have already been working hard to ensure our 21st century data infrastructure is ready for the growing number and complexity of applications our users require of it. To do so, we consult with our users, talk to industry experts and collaborate with researchers.

But a particularly valuable resource is our colleagues in official statistics from across the globe. I recently attended the 64th ISI World Statistics Congress in Ottawa, Canada, which is organized by the International Statistical Institute (ISI). I had the opportunity to chat with people from all over the world. More than 2,000 statisticians and data scientists – professionals from academia, national statistical offices (NSOs), and the private sector – attended the five-day event.

I presented in a session with colleagues from Australia, Brazil and the Netherlands in which we all discussed the progress of our organizations to transform and modernize official statistics (see my earlier blogs on this topic: February 9, 2023, March 14, 2019 and August 27, 2018). It’s striking how similar the problems NSOs face are. These include declining survey participation, access to administrative and private data, tight fiscal environments, and building the diverse teams of professionals we all need if we are to meet these challenges. While each NSO (including other U.S. federal statistical agencies) has different modernization priorities and approaches, the underlying challenges, and the new opportunities, are broadly similar.

Official statistics have never been more relevant to helping solve the problems of the world than they are today. And it’s more important than ever that the professional staffs of NSOs connect with each other, talk to each other and, most importantly, learn from each other. One key area where knowledge sharing is particularly useful is census taking. Just a few weeks ago, the Census Bureau sponsored a series of virtual seminars hosted by CNSTAT. Each webinar featured colleagues from either the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand and explored how they are addressing our common challenges and their plans for using administrative data and other innovations in conducting their population censuses. We then took advantage of these folks coming to North America for ISI to hold a one-day, in-person session to further our discussions.

The Census Bureau and ISI have a history of collaboration and are among the founding members of the UN Global Network of Institutions for Statistical Training (GIST), a network established in 2017 of international and regional training institutions working together to build sustainable statistical capacities through efficient, effective and harmonized delivery of training. We continue to collaborate with them on the GIST task teams to address the training needs of national statistical offices and ­to promote statistical literacy together.

More recently, the Census Bureau participated in two sessions at the 2023 Internatio­­­­nal Association for Official Statistics-ISI Zambia Conference. The first session was on censuses of population and housing and how Census Bureau data collection software was used in the 2020 round of censuses to count more than 700 million people. In another session, we moderated a panel discussion on how we can help develop sustainable statistical training in Africa.

In addition to ISI, the Census Bureau collaborates internationally through organizations like the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and we partner with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help developing nations improve their data infrastructures – a key step in fighting poverty and improving lives around the world. The UN provides many venues for member countries to interact and share best practices in official statistics.

The Census Bureau participates in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as an active member of the Steering Committee on Population and Housing Censuses and in the annual meetings. These meetings enable our staff to meet with counterparts from other NSOs and discuss topics such as migration, gender statistics, censuses and more. The same opportunity exists through our participation in the United Nation Statistics Division meetings. These are both great opportunities to share our expertise and to learn from other countries.

Geography is core to how the Census Bureau and other NSOs collect, process and disseminate statistical data products. You can say geography is the infrastructure of the nation’s data infrastructure. This week, the Census Bureau will participate in the 13th Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), which sets the UN agenda for strengthening geospatial information management around the globe. Since 2021, the Census Bureau has been leading work to promote the use of geographic frameworks for official statistics and other critical purposes. Under our leadership, more than 40 countries have adopted the use of the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF). Colleagues in Ethiopia, Panama, India and many more countries are now enhancing the way they combine geographic and statistical data to respond to natural disasters, health crises and climate change. Based on our interactions with these international colleagues, we are even using the IGIF to enhance our national spatial data infrastructure here at home. 

By collaborating with colleagues throughout the world, Census Bureau staff are part of a global community of professionals dedicated to official statistics and striving to improve the statistical infrastructures our citizens rely on.