Statistics to understand and connect to society

Marking the seventh European Statistics Day

Can you recall when you first came in touch with statistics? And are you even aware of the quantity of data you are exposed to? As well as the fact that it is exactly you and your everyday life that make statistics? There is almost no newspaper article, television programme, commercial, research, business meeting or sports event which does not contain statistical data, but, considering its all-pervasiveness, it is possible that the importance of statistics is often not sufficiently noted.

That is exactly why, in order to raise awareness of the importance of statistics and of usefulness of using statistical data in all life areas to be able to make informed decisions, 20 October was declared the European Statistics Day. From 2015 onwards, it has been celebrated every year, and the motto of this year's celebration, the seventh one in a row, is 'Statistics to understand and connect to society, in the search for truth’!

A figure of 721 thousand visits to web pages of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics from the beginning of this year certainly confirms that people want to be informed and base their decisions on quality statistical data, and users or our data are very diverse – from scientists and researchers, business users, state administration representatives and international institutions, all the way up to the media. We strive to satisfy the needs of them all.

Listening to users’ needs, the official statistics collects, processes and disseminates data from even nineteen statistical areas in the most diverse formats. Thus, in 2022, as many as 340 First Releases, 446 individual tables, 121 databases, 204 STS databases and 16 Statistical Reports were planned to be issued.

Still, getting along in a multitude of data can often become a search of a needle in a hay stack. This is why users often turn to us for help. In the first nine months this year, a number of user requests reached an enviable amount, 2 828, of which as many as 1 350 were business users. Concerning statistical areas for which users expressed the largest interest, the top three areas were labour market, population and industry.



In creating its services, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics dedicates a special attention to pupils and students since we are all familiar with the saying that the young will inherit the world, and in order to make that world a better place, it is important that they know how to use statistics. Therefore, we tried, in some of our projects such as Back2Basics and the Statistical educational portal Stedy, to bring closer to them statistical concepts in understandable way and show that statistics is not a bogeyman. In addition, high school students can also check if they listened carefully enough at school and worked out their lessons, as well as whether there were future statistical geniuses hiding among them, by joining the Statistical Competition, which has been carried out for the sixth year in a row now.

And finally, either you use statistics only occasionally, or they are integral part of what do you, or you will get to know countless possibilities that they provide only in the future, we hope you will, in accordance with this year's motto of the European Statistics Day, use them responsibly for better understanding and connecting to society. On this path, The Croatian Bureau of Statistics will provide to you quality statistical data, as always. 
 

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