Making the most of statistical data

Simon Field

Chief Technology Officer

Common standards

• Discovery

• Data and metadata representation

• Data standards

– Classifications

– Coding

• Common API standards

Bank for International SettlementsOECD

Eurostat

European Central Bank

The World Bank Group

International Monetary Fund

United Nations

‘Let’s make it interesting…’

A new criminal offence?

visible pixels 82% 18%

lie factor 0%

visible pixels 85% 15%

lie factor 3%

visible pixels 87% 13%

lie factor 5%

visible pixels 91% 9%

lie factor 9%

visible pixels 95% 5%

lie factor 13%

visible pixels 100% 0%

lie factor totalSurvey result:

Yes: 82%No: 18%

Source: Edward Tufte

Source: Edward Tufte

Summary

• A rich world of data

• Needs rich data standards

• SDMX is a suitable open standard

• We need to do more than a simple API

• Visualisation is key to understanding data