Official statistics and governance

Abstract

How do the quality of national statistical systems and governance influence each other? A deeper understanding of offcial statistics, including their relationship to governance and other critical outcomes, is essential for both academic researchers and policymakers. The exploratory data analysis reveals a strong correlation between the quality of governance and offcial statistics, a thesis supported across all continents. In regions with good governance, there exists a robust statistical system. Notably, among the six indicators of the Worldwide Governance Indicators, Regulatory Quality exhibits the highest correlation with the performance of official statistics, at approximately 80 percent. This indicates that the government's ability to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations is closely linked to the effectiveness of official statistics. In contrast, the indicator with the least correlation - over 50 percent - among the six is Political Stability. The countries with the most effective governance are those that demonstrate superior statistical performance. In fact, among the top ten countries recognised for their governance, five also rank within the top ten for statistical performance. The primary indicators utilised for this analysis are the Worldwide Governance Indicators (which include six distinct measures) and the Statistical Performance Indicators provided by the World Bank.