Improving Official Statistics
Improving Official Statistics
Improving Official Statistics
Improving Official Statistics
Dear IAOS member
This update includes information of interest to all IAOS members. This month, it includes:
And an update on the 2026 IAOS Young Statistician Prize.
The 2026 IAOS General Assembly to be held during the IAOS 26 conference in Vilnius, will be held on Wednesday 13 May, between 12.30 and 2pm Vilnius time (EEST). (Information about the venue will be included in the conference programme.)
The final agenda for the 2026 IAOS General Assembly, together with the 2025 Annual Report is now available on the ISI Community pages at https://communities.isi-web.org/iaos-GA-2026and on the IAOS website.
Members not able to attend the IAOS 26 conference but wanti ng to attend the General Assembly remotely are requested to contact the IAOS Secretariat at angie.simms@stats.govt.nz for information about the connection process.
Note that no hard copies of the General Assembly documents will be provided.
Final Registration for the conference closes on 17 April 2026. (Note that PRIOR registration is required). The conference will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, located on the banks of the River Neris in the heart of Vilnius. This venue offers an excellent base for exploring Lithuania’s vibrant capital. The charming Vilnius Old Town — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is just a 10-minute walk away, along with landmarks such as Vilnius Cathedral and Gediminas Castle Tower. See the conference website for more information.
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
The draft scientific programme of the IAOS 2026 Conference is available on the Conference website. Keynote addresses will be provided by Steve MacFeely (OECD), Ed Humpherson (UK Office for Statistical Regulation), Mariana Kotzeva (Eurostat) and Audronė Jakaitienė (Vilnius University.
SHORT COURSES – 11 MAY 2026
Two full-day short courses will take place on 11 May 2026, prior to the main Conference, hosted at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Vilnius University.
The short course “AI, GIS, and Data Science for Statistics” is now full , but there are still spaces for the course “Integrating Non-Probability Samples: A Modern Approach to Official Statistics” This course provides a practical framework for integrating probability and non-probability samples, covering propensity-score adjustment, calibration techniques, doubly robust estimation, and design-oriented integration strategies, and includes applied examples from official statistics production, including census, tourism, and business statistics. For more information including how to register – see here.
SOCIAL EVENTS
Social Events include the welcoming reception at the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva and the Gala Dinner at the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. These occasions will provide valuable opportunities to connect with fellow participants in a relaxed and memorable setting.
A reminder that the deadline for IPS Proposals for the 2027 WSC in Zambiia is is 16 June 2026. Guidelines for Sessions Organisers are at Guidelines for Session Organisers, Chairs, Presenters and Discussants. There is also A step-by-step guide on how to submit your IPS proposal in the system Proposals will be reviewed through the standard invited-session evaluation process.
The organisers have also opened the call for CPS proposals – These close on 8 October 2026 – so there is time to encourage all members of the official statistics community to contribute. See Contributed Paper Sessions | ISI for more information
For any questions about technical details of the proposal submission process, please e-mail: scientific@isi-wsc.org.
The Krakow Working Group was established in 2022 to determine the best mechanisms to engage with actors from inside and outside Official Statistics to identify appropriate initiatives to tackle issues of trust, misinformation and ethics that would benefit from enhanced engagement with non-official actors.
The Group would like to broaden the current work programme to include issues of importance to middle and lower income countries. We extend a warm welcome to official statisticians from middle and lower income countries interested in ethical issues and invite you to join the Group. Contact IAOS Secretariat at ContactIAOS@gmail.com for more information.
The latest issue of the SJIAOS is now available. This issue, the last under the editorship of Pietro Gennari, begins with a timely editorial – Can Official Statistics Survive the Collapse of Public Trust? This editorial addresses the reasons and potential remedies of one of the defining challenges for official statistics today: a growing crisis of public confidence. Drawing on trends such as the Edelman Trust Barometer and high-profile examples from the US and UK, it shows how NSOs face challenges on two fronts: competence (whether statistics accurately capture lived realities) and integrity (whether they are seen as politically neutral).
The issue also includes three special sections –
The issue also includes 8 other papers capturing issues across emerging and enduring challenges in official statistics.
Once again the IAOS thanks Pietro for his commitment to the SJIAOS during his time as Editor in Chief and welcomes Hossain Hasani, the incoming Editor in Chief.
IAOS is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the SAE 2026 conference. This international conference will serve as a bridge among statisticians, survey methodologists, economists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and others interested in combining information from multiple sources to make reliable inferences at granular levels. In addition to traditional small area estimation topics, the conference will cover emerging themes in survey and official statistics (e.g., nonprobability sampling, record linkage, data fusion, etc.).
For more information, including registration details see – https://sae2026.faa.ro/
Thanks to those that entered the 2026 competiton. The results of this year‘s competition will be available later in the year.
Gary Dunnet
IAOS President 2025-2027