Estonia’s representatives at the European Statistics Competition will be determined in a public choice competition

139 teams and around 400 students registered for the Estonian national phase of the competition. The Estonian phase comprised two assignments. The first was to complete three web-based tests. Teams that qualified for the second assignment prepared also a statistical research presentation. The winner in the older age group came from Viljandi Gymnasium, while Hugo Treffner Gymnasium and Narva Pähklimäe Gymnasium tied for the second and third place. The winner in the younger age group was Tartu Veeriku School. Tallinn Secondary School of Science came second and Lüganuse School came third.

The two teams of each age group that receive the most votes in the public choice competition lasting from 1 July to 10 July will participate in the European phase of the Statistics Competition. Due to issues that arose at the last moment, one of the teams in the older age group withdrew from participating. As a result, Viljandi Gymnasium and Narva Pähklimäe Gymnasium teams moved directly to the European phase of the competition. All teams in the younger age group decided to compete for a place in the European phase. They prepared a 2-minute video in English explaining a social topic that is currently most relevant to them. Anyone can vote for his or her favourite team in the competition’s Facebook group. The representatives from Estonia will be announced on 13 July and the winners of the European phase on 7 September.

According to Triin Küttim, head of the Marketing and Dissemination Department of Statistics Estonia, the European Statistics Competition was suspended in Europe because of the COVID-19 related emergency situation, and for a while there was no confidence about when it could be continued. “The winners of the Estonian phase were announced shortly before the emergency situation, which resulted in school closures in Estonia and other European countries organising the competition. After the end of the emergency situation, each country could decide how to continue. We were delighted that the teams from Estonian schools wanted to continue competing for a place in the European phase, even after the end of such an extraordinary school year,” said Küttim.

Under the guidance of the European Union statistical office Eurostat, the European Statistics Competition for students is organised in 17 European countries, with over 17,000 students participating in two age groups. This is the second time that Estonia participates in the competition. Last year, the video of team Radiaator from Hugo Treffner Gymnasium won in the older age group. The team members were Toomas Roosma, Kertu Liisa Lepik and Paul Erik Olli, supervised by Kerli Orav-Puurand.