Where Economic Data Comes From

Every time a news report mentions inflation, unemployment, or economic growth, someone had to measure it. Most of these numbers come from a statistical agency - a government body whose job is to collect, calculate, and publish official statistics. Knowing who produces a number, and how, helps you judge how much to trust it and what it can and cannot tell you.

The main producers

In India, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, often shortened to MoSPI, oversees the National Statistics Office, which produces GDP estimates, the Consumer Price Index, and major surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey. The Reserve Bank of India publishes data on money, banking, and interest rates.

In the United States, several agencies share the work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces the monthly jobs report and consumer price data. The Bureau of Economic Analysis produces GDP. The Census Bureau runs the population census and many business and household surveys. The United Kingdom has a single main body, the Office for National Statistics, and most countries have a similar national statistics office.

At the global level, organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations gather data from countries and publish it in comparable form, which is how you can hear statements comparing dozens of countries at once.

How the numbers are gathered

Statistical agencies use three broad sources. Surveys ask households and businesses questions. Price collectors record the prices of thousands of goods and services in shops and online. Administrative data is information collected in the course of running government programmes - tax records, pension contributions, customs declarations, business registrations - which can be reused for statistics. Increasingly, agencies also experiment with newer sources, such as electronic payment data, while taking care to protect privacy.

Release calendars and independence

Most statistical agencies publish a release calendar - a schedule announced in advance saying exactly when each figure will come out. In the United States, for example, the main jobs report usually appears on the first Friday of each month. Publishing on a fixed schedule, rather than whenever convenient, helps prevent anyone from timing good or bad news for political advantage.

For the same reason, trustworthy statistics depend on agencies being able to work independently, using transparent methods that are published for anyone to examine. International guidelines, such as the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, set out these standards. When people question a country’s data, they are often questioning whether its agencies have this independence.