Bridging the gap between official statistics and theoretical statistics

Abstract

Generally, statistics means numerical data or quantitative information in an enquiry. In ancient times, statistics was used as ‘political arithmetic’. Some view it as branch of mathematics while others view statistics as information. Nobody is arguing on the importance of mathematics in studying statistics. Official statistics are statistics published by the government and its agencies to make decisions about society and the economy while theoretical statistics is the application of mathematical knowledge in studying different statistical theories and methods. The importance of official statistics cannot be over-emphasized, but the graduates from many universities in developing countries, are equipped with theoretical statistics with almost no knowledge in official statistics. These graduates need to be first oriented with official statistics within National Statistics Offices (NSOs) to understand the skill, intricacies, and competencies to make sense of statistical information in areas of importance to society. In addition, there is a need to identify gaps and various other aspects related to official statistics, which these graduates should learn, in order to be considered literate in official statistics. This paper aims to address how to bridge the gap between official statistics and theoretical statistics to the statisticians, and hence to ensure that we leave no statistician behind because official statistics matter to all statisticians.