The 20th of October 2010 will be the first ever World Statistics Day (WSD), a day created to recognize the achievements the global statistics systems at both national and international levels. The day, which was created by the United Nations Statistics Division, will advocate the work of many statisticians across the world who work within different settings, cultures and domains.The three key words chosen to highlight WSD are Service, Professionalism and Integrity.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated “Let us make this historic World Statistics Day a success by acknowledging and celebrating the role of statistics in the social and economic development of our societies and by dedicating further efforts and resources to strengthening national statistical capacity”

The OECD is also celebrating World Statistics Day, centering the day around “Better Data for Better Policies”. After Mr. Marcos Bonturi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Secretary-General, opens the meeting, Statisticians from throughout the OECD will showcase how they use statistics in innovative ways in their day to day work. After the presentations, interactive displays will show some of the innovative methods for using and disseminating statistics.

Sustainable Progress

The UN stresses that reliable and timely statistics and indicators are more important than ever:
“On this World Statistics Day, I urge all partners and stakeholders to work together to ensure that the necessary investments are made, adequate technical capacity is built, new data sources are explored and innovative processes are applied to give all countries the comprehensive information systems they need to achieve sustainable development,” stated Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General before the UN event in 2015.

Countable Facts

Statistics is a way of collecting, analyzing, interpreting, presenting, and organizing data. Applying statistics to larger groups of data gives a general overview of issues, including scientific, industrial, or social problems.
“We need to ensure that everyone is counted, especially the most poor and vulnerable. No child’s birth shall remain unregistered. No incidence of disease, no matter how remote the location, shall remain unrecorded. We need local statistics to ensure that every child has access to education and we need global statistics to monitor the overall effects of climate change,” said Ban Ki-Moon.