European statistics users’ conference taking place in Tallinn

“The aim of the conference is to give an overview of statistics consumers, their hopes and needs and their experiences with using statistics,” said Mart Mägi, Director General of Statistics Estonia. “The ambition of Statistics Estonia is to be the most effective statistical office in Europe by 2021. We want to produce user-friendly and necessary statistics, which do not provide information only in retrospect but projections as well,” explained Mr Mägi. “If we wish to be visible in the information society and capture users’ attention, we need to understand the real needs of users and find the best ways to use new capabilities for their benefit,” said Mr Mägi.

Dr Emanuele Baldacci, Director for methodology, corporate statistical and IT services of Eurostat, remarked, “This conference is an important opportunity to raise awareness and discuss the future of European statistics. Official statistics can only stay relevant and valued if users can easily access the data and society uses this data for information and decision-making. Eurostat and the national statistical offices are continuously improving statistical communication products so we can better interact with our users.”

In the first half of the conference, experts of different fields talk about their experiences with using official statistics and interpreting numbers. In the second half of the day, researchers present studies on the Estonian economy, education, social life and people’s health, which are based on the data of Statistics Estonia and Eurostat.