Partial Support for the Core Activities of the Committee on National Statistics

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Relevant, objective, high-quality, timely, and accessible information produced by federal statistical agencies is critical for informing decisions by policy makers for federal, state, and local governments as well as by private businesses and households. This project will provide partial support for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT). The Committee was established as a standing committee in 1972 and works to improve the statistical methods and measures produced by the diverse array of statistical agencies spread across the federal government and to help those agencies collaborate with each other to serve the public good. CNSTAT also contributes to improving the data that are available for economic and social science research applied to important national needs, such as understanding the economy, technology and innovation, public health, education, welfare, and other areas. CNSTAT conducts much of its work through consensus studies carried out by panels of volunteer experts, which review specific statistical programs and measures. It also conducts workshops and public seminars for the benefit of the statistical and research community and updates every 4 years a volume titled "Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency," which helps protect the objectivity and credibility of federal statistics. Interacting with the federal statistical and research agencies and the social and economic sciences research community, CNSTAT will identify priority topics for study involving federal statistics and statistical methods. For example, CNSTAT studies will help the Census Bureau design an accurate and cost-effective 2020 census and improve other nationally important surveys of households and businesses; help the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at NSF improve surveys of the science and engineering workforce and measures of innovation; and help the Department of Health and Human Services improve data on the elderly and disadvantaged people. An important ongoing initiative is to foster standards and methods for using multiple data sources to improve federal statistics by drawing on data from administrative records and from selected Internet and other non-traditional data sources in addition to the surveys currently used. The use of multiple data sources is imperative to hold down costs of federal statistical programs, improve data quality and timeliness, and maintain relevance and credibility in an era in which people are less likely to respond to surveys and there are competing statistics from non-government sources.