By Linda Peters
Today we celebrate World Statistics Day! And here at Esri, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank Statisticians around the world for their important contributions to making our lives better! Statisticians – through the creation of official statistics – provide decisions makers with the facts and figures that inform and drive policies impacting millions of people on a daily basis.
Across the world statisticians are making a difference:
- Supporting censuses around the world in 2016 from Australia to Canada….Egypt to Ireland;
- Building the framework for censuses that will be completed in 2017 in places such as Palestine, Ethiopia and Colombia;
- Providing the data that define, drive and measure the global Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations;
In undertaking these achievements, statisticians have adapted to significantly changing environments – reduced budgets and resources as well as the increasing demand for data on a constant basis. Over the past 20-30 years they have accomplished this by changing their key business processes to accommodate changes in how they identify what data to collect, how they design and administer surveys, and how they disseminate data.
GIS has been a part of this change and one that we see being embraced by more and more agencies. Statisticians are embracing a fundamental geospatial statistical framework, one that will help them continue to innovate into the future.
Official statistics help decision makers develop informed policies that impact millions of people. Improved data sources, sound statistical methods, new technologies and strengthened statistical systems enable better decisions that eventually result in better lives for all of us. On 20 October 2016, the global statistical community will showcase their achievements and their ongoing work to help this vision come true. Congratulations to you! Want to learn more? Visit http://www.esri.com/industries/mapping-statistics-imagery.