Statistical Journal of the IAOS

Attitudes and opinions are not common subjects in official statistics, but they deserve more attention. Gender policy is a policy domain where statistics on attitudes might be very effective. The article attempts to illustrate the merits of statistics on subjective phenomena such as opinions and attitudes, and difficulties that may occur in the statistical observation of such events. This will be done by presenting the measurement and statistical analyses on the evaluation of the female share in decision-making in society today.

The implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) has increased policy and decision-maker demand for integrated hydro-economic data, information and indicators at the level of river basins. In order to meet this increasing demand, a new integrated hydro-economic accounting system has been developed, called National Accounting Matrix including Water Accounts for River Basins (NAMWARiB). NAMWARiB provides information about the interactions between the physical water system and the economy at national and river basin scale. The main objective of this paper is to present and discuss the use and usefulness of the newly developed river basin information system for the implementation of the European WFD based upon the currently available time series data.

Though relatively small, the Bermuda Department of Statistics faces challenges similar to those of larger statistical agencies. These include: scarce storage space, rising printing costs and an increasing need for timely and reliable data. In response to these challenges, an investigation into new and more cost effective means of conducting surveys was initiated.

Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) involves the use of a portable computer to collect, store and transmit data related to a personal survey interview. This interviewing method has the capacity to increase the quality and efficiency of data collection and processing.

The Department tested this interviewing method during the conduct of the decennial Household Expenditure Survey (HES) from May to August 2004. The report provides an overview of each phase of the pilot study from preparation to performance.

The main benefits realised during the pilot study were a reduction of manual editing, high-speed delivery of raw data and less interviewer fatigue once accustomed to CAPI. It can be concluded that the CAPI method is a viable alternative for collecting survey data.

However, caution must be exercised when deciding on a method of data capture for various surveys. Decisions should be made based on the length and complexity of the survey questionnaire and the type of questions asked. Also, it was quite evident, and primarily from experience, that strict survey controls were needed for the fieldwork operations, such as weekly reporting to office staff, constant follow-up and increased observation of the CAPI interviewers in the field.

Independent and trustworthy statistics are the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Statistics encourage debate, inform decision-making, both inside and outside government and allow people to judge whether the Government is delivering on its promises. For official statistics to play that key role effectively a very high level of public trust is needed, both in the organisation that produces statistics and in the quality and integrity of the information it produces.

Building public recognition for the importance, independence, professionalism and good reputation of a statistical office is a long-term undertaking that depends on a complex range of interactions in order to succeed. Confidence is critical to the willingness of the public to trust statistics, to take part in government surveys and to follow policy recommendations based on official statistics.

Statistical information now has a role and a prominence it has never had before. Governments are making more strategic use of statistics in their performance measures and evidence-based decision-making. Citizens are looking to statistics both to help make sense of the world around them and to help judge the performance of their Government. The media are ever more cynical and reluctant to take Government produced information at face value.

All of this presents special challenges for the communication function, which is responsible for a large part of the interface between a statistical office and the outside world. Communication via the web and news media are two crucial aspects. This paper offers some thoughts, suggestions and examples of how this complex and demanding challenge can be addressed.

Statistics Denmark has been monitoring its reputation among ordinary citizens (taxpayers) on a regular basis since 2000. The paper describes the methods used and the resulting time series. The latest report is dated December 2004 and shows a high and stable level of trust among citizens with respect to the objectivity of the institution. Improvements in citizens' knowledge of Statistics Denmark may be attributed to a general increase in press coverage in recent years. A comparison with two other countries shows large differences in the amount of trust placed in national statistical institutions.

Statistical compendia, designed as printed reference tools that consolidate a range of statistical data, are being reshaped in the face of changes in information technology. New capabilities have propelled these compendia to the web and on onto a CD-ROM. However, most remain electronic mirrors of their print editions. What functionalities are necessary to support the evolution of the statistical abstract in the changing information landscape? What do users want and how do they want it presented? With increasing online accessibility to data from original sources, is bringing together that data into one package still important? Why or why not?

The US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) sponsored research into these issues as they relate to its statistical compendia, the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics which has been published for over 30 years. The study used various techniques including focus groups; a consensus building Delphi with a panel of experts in criminal justice, cognitive psychology, information science, computer science, and statistical dissemination; and usability testing. This paper summarizes the findings of this research that are applicable to all statistical compendia and to statistical publishing in general.

To protect individuals in microdata from the disclosure risk of re-identification, a general perturbative method called PRAM (the Post-Randomization Method) is sometimes used for masking records. This method adds “noise” to categorical variables by changing values of categories for a small number of records according to a prescribed probability matrix and a stochastic process based on the outcome of a random multinomial draw. Changing values of categorical variables, however, will cause fully edited and logical records in microdata to start failing edit constraints (i.e., logical rules) resulting in data of low utility. Also, an inconsistent record will target the record as having been perturbed for disclosure control and attempts can be made to unmask the data. Therefore, the perturbation process must take into account per-record micro edit constraints through post-editing which will ensure that perturbed microdata satisfy all edits. In addition, file-level macro edit constraints, which take the form of information loss measures, are also defined in order to ensure that the overall utility of the data will not be badly compromised given an acceptable level of disclosure risk. This paper will discuss methods for perturbing microdata using PRAM while minimizing micro and macro edit failures.