ISI World Statistics Congress 2025: The Olympic Games of Statistics
Statistics at work
The ISI was established 140 years ago. Its founders believed that statistical agencies in different countries should work together internationally and harmonise certain concepts. A single body was needed to coordinate this, and in 1885 the ISI was set up to play that role. The ISI is a broad-based organisation with over 4000 members and its goal is to connect and bring together statistics professionals from around the world. The ISI World Statistics Congress – held every two years and where many ISI members and other delegates come to share and exchange knowledge – is an important way of doing this.The Statistics Olympics
Eric Schulte Nordholt is Census Project Manager and Statistical Security Advisor at CBS, and has been attending ISI World Statistics Congresses since 1997. Not only has he been a frequent participant, but since 1999 an ISI elected member as well. In addition, he has served as a panel member, and he regularly gives courses and lectures and leads discussions at the ISI World Statistics Congresses. ‘The Congress was due to take place in The Hague in 2021, but due to the coronavirus pandemic it had to be held online instead. Now the Congress is coming back to the Netherlands for the first time in 40 years. The ISI is organising the event in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS) to make it a success. This Congress can be seen as the Olympic Games of Statistics.’
Overarching themes
A number of other familiar faces from CBS will also be playing an active role – giving presentations on statistical methods, for example. Schulte Nordholt: ‘I’ll be giving a course on statistical security with some colleagues before the Congress. And one of our directors will be talking about CBS’s positioning. There are several overarching themes that will be of interest to many participants – subjects like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Green Deal.’Major current projects
Carina Fransen is a member of CBS’s International Affairs team and is closely involved in organising the ISI World Statistics Congress. She was able to use her extensive international network to recruit colleagues from both the Netherlands and abroad to participate in the Congress and make scientific contributions. How does the agenda for the ISI World Statistics Congress take shape? ‘A specially appointed scientific programme committee looks at all the proposals submitted and makes a selection, and then puts together the most varied programme possible for a diverse group of participants. The programme includes 250 parallel sessions and will be of interest to statisticians, policymakers, scientists and the business community alike. Major statistics projects, such as the revision of the National Accounts and the Census, are highly relevant for statisticians. The impact of climate change is also high on the agenda. Declining response rates are a major concern for many statistical agencies, too, and this is an area where we can learn from each other's experiences.’ Another relevant theme is how fake news and misinformation are affecting our society. Fransen: ‘People want to learn more about security and democracy. Subjects like data stewardship, data governance and the impact of artificial intelligence on our existing methods for creating statistics are also very relevant topics for many statisticians.’Inspiration
Fransen has attended several ISI World Statistics Congresses in recent years and always finds them greatly inspiring. ‘So many different topics are discussed, and you can meet many people and expand your knowledge. Every day you can choose from the many sessions to hear experiences and best practices from colleagues from around the world. CBS can show people what it does best at the ISI World Statistics Congress. For example, CBS will organise a number of sessions around innovation in the field of statistics.’Related items
- Website - ISI - 65th ISI World Statistics Congress