Abstract

National Statistical Offices (NSOs), including the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), are increasingly turning to alternative data to obtain needed information, thereby reducing survey and census respondent burden. In addition, many NSOs are adopting modern technologies that lead to improved efficiencies in the production of official statistics. Adopting new technologies leads to opportunities to leverage alternative data more effectively. In this presentation, new products and processes NASS has developed based on new technologies and administrative or remotely sensed data, two forms of alternative data, are presented. As examples, advances in technology have improved the use of administrative and remotely sensed data in list frame development, resulting in a more complete list frame. Alternative data and previously reported data are being used in surveys and censuses to reduce respondent burden. Editing and imputation based on alternative data have been improved using modern technology, leading to improved data quality and a reduction in staff time devoted to these processes. Analysis and estimation of official statistics have improved and the time staff devote to the review process has been reduced for several surveys through effective use of alternative data and new technology. NASS is continuing to evolve its processes. Current and future efforts to use new technologies to further leverage alternative data are highlighted. The potential impact of these efforts on data quality is discussed.