Press Releases

Today, 20th October 2022, is the 7^th European Statistics Day. The celebration of the European Statistics Day, which complements World Statistics Day taking place every five years, aims at highlighting the important role of official statistics in our society. The Statistical Service supports this year’s motto “Statistics to understand and connect to society, in the search for truth!”.

Decision-making centers need to be able to understand the needs of the society and connect to it by providing the required solutions. Τhey need an objective way of monitoring the current situation in Cyprus, both for taking measures and for evaluating their effectiveness. Thus, reliable and up-to-date statistics are crucial to support all decisions and actions. Respectively, citizens themselves also need to have access to reliable statistical information. Social exclusion entails not only material deprivation but also a limited action or control caused by lacking information. Being informed by available and timely official statistics represents a first main step for the social inclusion of individuals and for their strong connection to society. Additionally, powered by new technologies and spread by social networks, disinformation, misinformation, and mal-information are becoming increasingly effective. The potential of hiding the truth represents a real risk for society. In times when uncertainty and availability of confusing information increase, the search for verified facts, as produced by statistical offices, is vital to reinforce democracy and strengthen evidence-based decision-making.

In Cyprus, the Authority responsible for the compilation and dissemination of most of the official statistics is the Statistical Service (CYSTAT). In the context of the celebration of the European Statistics Day, CYSTAT has carried out the following actions, which aim to promote the use of official statistics:

• Event on “Data we can trust”

The Statistical Service and the Cyprus Statistical Society jointly organized an event, that took place at the Ministry of Finance, with invited speaker Mr. Andreas Georgiou (Visiting Lecturer, Visiting Scientist at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA). The topic of the speech was: Data we can trust require the support of statisticians to work on the basis of the ethical principles of statistics.

• European Statistics Competition

The Statistical Service, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth, the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Statistical Society have launched the European Statistics Competition in Cyprus. The competition will be held amongst secondary school students during the school year 2022-2023.

(NG/SCH)