ASA watch on integrity of federal statistical data

If you follow the topics I blog about, then you may also wish to read the American Statistical Association’s recent post about monitoring possible threats to the US federal statistical system.

In short, there are concerns that the new administration may defund or eliminate valuable statistical programs. They may also insist on asking for citizenship / immigration status on the next decennial Census, despite the detrimental effect this would have on response rates and data quality. The ASA’s post has further details and links to relevant news stories.

Whatever your political views, it’s difficult to manage a country effectively and efficiently without high-quality statistical information. Public data is an important good for members of the public as well, as I argued a few years back during worries about eliminating a federal statistical survey. I’m grateful those concerns did not come to pass then. I hope for the best this time too.