President Declares 20th of October as National Statistics Day

President, His Excellency, Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has declared 20^th of October to be marked as the National Statistics Day, on an annual basis. The decision was come to in the light of a paper presented to the President by Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure during a cabinet meeting held yesterday.

The intent on declaring such a day revolves around promoting and developing the field of the statistics in Maldives with attention to expand the usage of statistics in shaping and framing policies for decision making. Moreover, it creates an opportunity to raise awareness amongst the public on the subject in order to build a statistics-friendly generation. This is line with the United Nations aspirations on dedicating extreme importance to the value of statistics in overcoming the global challenges we presently face.

National Statistics Day will also be ironically coinciding with the 3^rd World Statistics Day. World Statistics Day was celebrated for the first time on 20^th October 2010 and since then, the day is marked every five years. This year’s World Statistics Day will be celebrated under the theme ‘Connecting the world with data we can trust’ dwelling on the importance of recording trustworthy and authoritative data in national and international statistical systems for innovative purposes and for the public good.