Dan Hedlin: Current Issues in Official Statistics

I will give a brief overview of the areas referred to as “survey methodology” and “official statistics”. What are these areas? Although there is no definition of neither “survey methodology” nor “official statistics”, I will try to broadly describe the content of these and talk about their use and importance.

In terms of statistical methods, is the methodology in these areas different from that of other statistical areas? Are there any other views on what we might call statistical philosophy? And what are the current research issues? As I cannot possibly cover the whole range of survey methodology and official statistics in a mere 45 minute talk, I will limit myself to a taster of some special methodological issues and some current research endeavours.