The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century—a report by a team of American Statistical Association and George Mason University researchers released July 9—concluded federal statistical agencies face mounting barriers, inhibiting their ability to innovate to the extent needed to provide the information and evidence required in the 21st century. In addition, the research team found the chief statistician’s office in the Office of Management and Budget is under-resourced, reducing its ability to coordinate and lead a decentralized statistical system.
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with additional support by the ASA and George Mason, the report concludes an 18-month investigation into the health of the federal statistical agencies and marks the project team’s transition to preparing the next report, which is expected to be released in a year and annually thereafter. Additionally, a scientific advisory board counseled the team on the report, along with 11 subject matter experts who conducted a thorough review of it.
The project team posed the following six questions of the 13 principal federal statistical agencies:
- Does the agency consistently produce trusted, quality statistics?
- Is the agency trustworthy and accountable?
- Does the agency have sufficient support in three key areas: professional autonomy; parent-agency support; and sufficient budget and skilled staff?
- What are the challenges and threats the agency faces and their magnitude and potential consequences?
- Is the agency agile? What are its innovation record and opportunities to respond to future data needs?
- Is the agency responsive to user needs and transparent about its data products and decisions that affect users?
Based on publicly available information, listening sessions with current and former statistical system leaders, and information provided by the agencies, the report documents the following six findings:
- Statistical agencies are experiencing significant weaknesses in at least one of the three critical supports from question #3.
- As a consequence, long-standing statistical series that produce important economic indicators, such as the unemployment rate, are prone to becoming outdated in content and methods because of the statistical agencies’ inability to invest in continuous testing and improvement.
- Agencies face a challenging environment in which to more rapidly develop and implement new data collection methods and tap other public and private data sources to sustain quality and timeliness, increase efficiency and productivity, and keep up with policy areas of interest.
- Agencies are increasingly challenged to protect the confidentiality of respondents’ information in a time of increased risk of disclosure while still serving their fundamental responsibility of providing data fit for users’ needs.
- An opportunity for agencies that would facilitate their continued production of trusted, quality statistics is to ‘blend’ survey data with administrative records and commercial sources to improve data quality and content.
- Agencies should increase outreach and engagement to understand their stakeholders and data users.
The team members concluded immediate action is needed to put the agencies and chief statistician’s office on a firmer footing so federal statistics remain widely trusted and useful to a society saturated with information from many sources, credible and not. They identified 15 recommendations for Congress, parent agencies, the Office of Management and Budget, and the statistical agencies, which were endorsed by the ASA Board of Directors.
The team members think the 15 actions would fill important gaps in existing legislation and regulations to bolster statistical agencies’ professional autonomy, data-sharing authority, and resources.
To be clear, the team members reason that while the statistical agencies are achieving much with the resources and authorities they have, adopting their recommendations should position the agencies to respond effectively to the increasing information demands and future challenges.
The team concluded that not implementing their recommendations would put needed federal statistics—and the nation’s data needs—at unnecessary risk.
The report also includes statistical agency profiles—reviewed by each agency—that summarize the work and fundamental characteristics of the agency; rate the strengths of the agency’s essential supports; and identifies recent successes, strengths, vulnerabilities, challenges, and opportunities. The profiles also have agency-specific recommendations.
Additionally, the report has extensive supporting materials, covering such topics as the value of federal statistics, origins and overview of the federal statistical system, previous assessments of the federal statistical system, foundational documents for federal statistical agencies, quality of principal federal statistical agency programs, and innovation by principal statistical agencies.
Members of the project team request feedback on the report—what it missed or got wrong—as well as recommendations for its second-year report.
Project Team Members
The project team includes the following:
Jonathan Auerbach, George Mason University
Claire McKay Bowen, Urban Institute
Constance Citro, National Academies
Nancy Potok, NAPx Consulting
Steve Pierson, American Statistical Association
Zachary Seeskin, NORC at the University of Chicago
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