What is an official statistic?
An official statistic is:
- produced by an organisation named by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and described by that organisation as an official statistic or part of a set of official statistics.
- any set of statistics produced by an organisation named under secondary legislation and described by that organisation as an official statistic or part of a set of official statistics.
This broad definition of official statistics means that the scope of official statistics can be adapted over time to suit changing circumstances.
Types of official statistics
The term official statistics includes three types of statistics produced by public bodies:
- National Statistics, which have been assessed by the Office for Statistics Regulation as fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. For a complete list of all National Statistics, see the list maintained by the Office for Statistics Regulation. Accredited National Statistics use the following quality mark:
- experimental statistics, which are newly developed or innovative statistics. These are published so that users and stakeholders can be involved in the assessment of their suitability and quality at an early stage.
- statistics that have not been assessed as fully compliant with the Code of Practice. A register of de-designated statistics is maintained by the Office for Statistics Regulation.