Abstract

As the world increasingly moves towards the virtual and digital economy, the demand for timely and integrated data has grown significantly for policy response and decision-making. In this aspect, data science and official statistics play tremendous role in better understanding a country’s economy with real and near real-time data facilitating a shift towards new data types to provide timely information. National Statistical Offices (NSOs) play a crucial role in gathering, analysing, interpreting, and disseminating data as official statistics for policymaking and public understanding. Traditionally, NSOs relied on data collection methods through surveys and censuses periodic basis such as monthly, yearly, or once every few years. To move with the digital economy in data demand for effective policies, the NSOs need to be adapted to non-survey data sources with data science on new methodologies, tools, and sources of data for richer insights and more granular understanding compared to traditional official statistics. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that combines statistical techniques, computer science and domain-specific knowledge to analyse and interpret complex data to inform policies. To substitute this new culture integrating of data science into official statistics, NSOs required a collaborative effort to navigate challenges in capacity building, and effective communication and ensure transparency in data sources and techniques among data users by adapting regulations to accommodate new data sources and techniques while protecting data privacy and preserving data quality. NSOs can significantly enhance their capabilities to navigate challenges more efficiently by establishing data science centres within their organizations. It needs a structural approach to establish such a centre. The centre should define clear goals that align with the NSO's mission in providing timely, accurate, and relevant statistical information. The data science centre needs to have an organizational structure appointing a head of the centre with a multidisciplinary team including data scientists, statisticians, and subject experts such as economics, demography, and IT professionals. This centre requires to be better equipped with technological infrastructure such as data storage facilities and software tools and also needs to develop protocols for accessing and integrating diverse data sources including big data, geospatial data, census and survey data and administrative data. To productive handling and sustainability of the centre, the staff should be trained continuously to build skills in data science, matching learning, new statistical techniques, and ethical data handling. Further, it is essential to develop effective communication strategies and outreach programs within NSO and stakeholders. In achieving its objectives, better to have an evaluation and establish mechanisms for feedback from users to improve the quality and services of data and information. Conclusively, creating a data science centre within NSOs improves the NOS’s ability to navigate challenges for high data demand caused by the virtual and digital economy enhancing the capabilities of statistical offices providing timely accurate data in a holistic approach encompassing organizational, technological, methodological and ethical consideration by the potential of data science in official statistics.

Keywords: Data Science, official statistics, Digital Economy