Q&A

IAOS is an association founded in 1985. It is an international non-governmental organization (NGO), which was created and developed as a specialized section of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). It is a voluntary organization whose members are scattered around the globe, mostly doing a full time job, rarely meeting and supported by a very small office.

The objectives of the Association shall be to promote the understanding and advancement of official statistics and related subjects and to foster the development of effective and efficient official statistical services through international contacts among individuals and organizations, including users of official statistics as well as research institutes.

In order to realize its objectives, the Association may:

• Organize meetings, seminars, conferences, and related activities independently or in collaboration with other organizations;
• Collaborate with international, national, regional and other organizations and institutions having objectives consistent with those of the Association, including official statistical offices, and other ISI Associations;
• Publish periodicals, pamphlets, books, information circulars, etc. independently or in cooperation with other organizations; and
• Undertake or participate in cooperative activities, make business transactions and take all other necessary action for the advancement of the objectives of the Association.

• We organize opportunities for people like you to collaborate internationally to exchange ideas and concepts;
• We work across countries, agencies, and sectors to promote professionalism in the design, development, collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of official statistics.

1. Biennial IAOS Conferences (since 1988) – (Most recent is the IAOS 2022 Conference which will be held in Krakow, Poland). IAOS through its conferences aims to address issues related to official statistics and tries to find solutions and strengthen the cooperation among National and International Statistical Association;
2. Young Statisticians Prize (annual since mid-2000s). To encourage more young statisticians to take an active interest in official statistics;
3. Statistical Journal of the IAOS. SJIAOS aims to support the IAOS mission by publishing articles of wide interest to both users and producers of official statistics.

IAOS is run by an Executive Committee elected for a period of two years. The Executive Committee shall be composed of the Officers who shall be a President, a President-Elect, four EXCO Members, and the Director of the Permanent Office of the ISI (ex-officio) acting as the Executive Director and Treasurer. They shall be responsible for the proper management of the affairs of the Association. IAOS General Assembly is the highest authority of the IAOS, it consists of individual members and representatives of member institutions. Moreover, IAOS EXCO may appoint standing and Ad Hoc Committees and they are as follows:

• Standing Committee on Regional and Urban Statistics (SCORUS) established by a statute agreed in the 2005 IAOS General Assembly;
• Nominating Committee for nominations of President-Elect and Executive Committee members for election;
• Program Committee appointed for each biennial conference.

Membership of the IAOS is open to anyone or any institution who shares the objectives of IAOS and interested in official statistics. By joining the IAOS it will give you the opportunity to establish a network with official statisticians and statistical agencies worldwide, debate current hot issues and global trends in official statistics, influence the future of official statistics by reducing the conference and seminar costs and grant you a free and immediate access to the SJIAOS.

The first IAOS Biennial Conference took place in Rome, 1988 and since then, IAOS conducted more than sixteen conferences in different places. The most recent conference will be held in Krakow, Poland, 26-28 April 2022. List of IAOS conferences and places:

• Rome, 1988
• Beijing, 1990
• Ankara, 1992
• Addis-Ababa, 1995
• Reykjavik, Iceland, 1996
• Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1998
• Montreux, Switzerland, 2000
• London, 2002
• Amman, 2004
• Ottawa, Canada, 2006
• Shanghai, 2008
• Santiago, 2010
• Kyiv, 2012
• Da Nang, Vietnam, 2014
• Abu Dhabi, 2016
• Paris, 2018
• Krakow, 2022

The initiative to prepare an IAOS strategy comes as a response to further develop the services of IAOS to meet the growing challenges facing official statistics. The strategy addresses organizational and strategic directions to transform the IAOS to a more relevant entity in the international statistical community. The agenda of the new strategy focuses on relevancy, visibility and partnership as well as institutionalization.