Statistics are the infrastructure of Macroeconomics. The Federal Reserve relies on honest statistics. Investors rely on statistics.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00699-2
National statistics are in crisis around the world — and the impacts will be severe
Some researchers are sounding the alarm over the official data sets that track crucial aspects of life in the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom and India.
By
- Ehsan Masood,
- Subhra Priyadarshini &
- Lucila Pinto, Nature, 11 March 2026
…
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…
People who work with or study official statistics say that they have never experienced a period similar to today’s situation. Those who call the current state a crisis think it has been triggered by an accumulation of overlapping factors. These include falling response rates to national surveys, cuts to funding and, in some cases, government interference…
Rules established by an assembly of the world’s national statisticians and endorsed by the UN require that some data sets meet international standards, which state that official statistics should be accurate, impartial, trustworthy and grounded in evidence…
Illustration: Jasiek Krzysztofiak/Nature. Adapted from photograph by Rob Curran
“Uncertainty.”
“Loss of trust.”
“Definitely a crisis.”
These are some of the ways in which researchers describe the state of affairs for government data in many countries.
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“There is a new type of politics that is undermining the credibility of official statistics,” says João 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 domestic product (GDP), are also the foundation for monitoring progress towards the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s plan to end poverty and achieve environmental sustainability.
“Official statistics are like the backbone of a nation’s data infrastructure,” says Steve Pierson, director of science policy at the American Statistical Association (ASA) in Washington DC. “Just like any other infrastructure — roads, bridges and highways — they cannot fail.”
People who work with or study official statistics say that they have never experienced a period similar to today’s situation. Those who call the current state a crisis think it has been triggered by an accumulation of overlapping factors. These include falling response rates to national surveys, cuts to funding and, in some cases, government interference.
Although funded by governments, national statistics offices are expected to operate independently of politicians, not least so that they are free to report the data as measured — much as academic research operates at arm’s length from its public-funding bodies. Moreover, rules established by an assembly of the world’s national statisticians and endorsed by the UN require that some data sets meet international standards, which state that official statistics should be accurate, impartial, trustworthy and grounded in evidence.
Although there is a history of inappropriate government involvement in the collection and reporting of national statistics (A. V. Georgiou Stat. J. IAOS 37, 85–105; 2021), there is a record of statistics agencies calling out the misuse of such data, too. But researchers worry that this might not be the case in future. “I fear that it is becoming harder for official statisticians to do their jobs,” says Diane Coyle, research director at the Bennett School of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, UK.
Nature explores problems with official statistics in four countries that are causing concern for researchers and statisticians.
United States: make statistics great again
The US national system is approaching a “crisis point” because of political interference and funding cuts that are threatening long-established data sets. That’s according to a report published last December by the ASA, the professional body for US statisticians (C. M. Bowen et al. The Nation’s Data at Risk: 2025 Report; ASA, 2025)…
The ASA reports that the magnitude of these problems has increased since US President Donald Trump regained office in January 2025. Events came to a head last August when Trump abruptly fired Erika McEntarfer, then the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) in Washington DC, after the agency published US employment data showing that the unemployment rate had increased to 4.2% in July, compared with the previous month’s rate of 4.1%…
Specialists point to other threats to the country’s official statistics, too, such as the termination of several long-established data sets. Last September, for example, the US Department of Agriculture ended its 30-year-long survey of household food insecurity, calling it “redundant, costly, politicized”. However, researchers say that the data set provides crucial information about the more than 40 million people in the United States who are unable to feed themselves without assistance…
Argentina… India… [end quote]
Political interference with statistics will throw uncertainty into every market move. For example, non-farm payroll employment has completely stalled since January 2025. Total nonfarm payroll employment edged down by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported for February 2026. But can those numbers be trusted?
Wendy