Official statistics in the search for solutions for living with COVID-19 and its consequences

The prolonged existence of COVID-19 and the consequential actions to manage it both nationally, regionally and internationally will provide national statistical offices with the greatest challenges that they might ever expect. There is much in common across statistical systems in the breadth of the expectations that are coming to be placed on them. Few countries will have the capacity to meet all these needs, or even plan for meeting them as they become recognised. This paper presents some personal views on how official statistics will need to change and foreshadows the range of influences on the context for which official statistical offices and international organisations need to plan for. The paper draws on experiences in New Zealand and focuses on aspects which have general applicability in other countries. All countries have some advantages and disadvantages that are unique to them, and those that have relevance to a study anchored in experiences in New Zealand are made clear. The central thrust of the paper is that national statistical offices need to be thinking now about the huge medium- and long-term influences that will shape what they need to change in their work.