Abstract

Official statistics have long been recognised as essential tools for government, policy makers, and organisations across civil society. However, when considering how to improve decision making for all we cannot stop there. This presentation looks beyond the widely-explored government and organisational uses of official statistics. Here, we focus on the often underappreciated yet still valuable role of official statistics in the hands of the public.

At the UK’s Office for Statistics Regulation, our vision is that official statistics will serve the public good. As such, we have a research programme seeking to deepen understanding in this area. To truly serve the public good, we have seen that official statistics need to be for everyone, which is why we are sharing in this presentation our research project exploring the role of statistics in decision making by individual citizens. We investigate how statistics empower individuals to make informed choices in their personal lives, and the findings of this work can be used widely to help official statistics become a powerful resource for all.

We invite you to join our presentation and explore the relationship between official statistics and individual decision making, ushering in a new area of data-driven empowerment and serving the public good.