The Official Statistics Olympic Challenge

Challenges to modern national statistical systems, with emphasis on that of the UK, are reviewed and likened to those facing Olympic athletes. I argue that the uses of official statistics to ensure political accountability vary in degree between countries and that this affects the pressures on the system. Many of the pressures exist because official statistics are at the heart of democratic accountability and the political process. Some of these uses and the connection to the pressures on the statistical system are explored together with some ways in which the system needs to respond.