'There is a new type of politics that is undermining the credibility of official statistics,' says Joao Pedro Azevedo, chief statistician for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF in New York City. Official statistics are data collected and validated by both national statistical agencies and international organizations. Nearly every country has an agency for official statistics. They collect information and organize it into statistics about myriad aspects of life, including what people earn, how many individuals are employed, how well children perform in school, the quality of nutrition, how long patients have to wait for an operation, levels of air pollution and increases to average temperatures. National agencies collect data through surveys and from secondary sources. These data sets are used by governments to inform policy, by businesses to plan for the future, and by researchers and advocacy organizations. Official statistics, such as those measuring nations' gross...
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