World Statistics Day 2025; October 20th.

FORUM: "Driving Change with Quality Statistics and Data for Everyone." World Statistics Day 2025. It's time to spur data innovation, nurture partnerships, mobilize high-level political and financial support for data, and build a pathway to better data for sustainable development. This October 20th; Let's reflect on the importance of trust, authoritative data, innovation and the public good in national statistical systems. The stakeholder community engaged in the Forum represents a diverse range of governments, civil society, the private sector, donor and philanthropic bodies, international and regional agencies, the geospatial community, the media, academia, and professional bodies. Follow the conversations with the hashtags; #Qualitydata, #Drivingchange, #Qualitystatistics, #Statistics4everyone, #Data4everyone, #20october, #worldstatisticsday, #statisticians, #statistics.

EVENTS: On October 20th, the World Statistics Day 2025 will be organized by the United Nations Statistical Commission with a 24-hour Webinar Marathon Celebrating the 4th World Statistics Day!

The UN Regional Commissions and UN Statistics Division invite you to a global 24-hour webinar marathon, featuring voices, stories, and innovations from every region. Following by Live sessions showcasing national and regional initiatives in official statistics.
Innovations in data — new methodologies, technologies, and partnerships making data more accessible and impactful.
Country spotlights on how statistics drive progress toward development goals.
Panel discussions with statistical leaders, data scientists, and policymakers.
Quizzes, competitions, and polls to keep the energy high.
Interactive Q&A sessions — your chance to join the conversation, wherever you are in the world.*

Watch the livestream!

STATEMENTS:

Statement of the United Nations Secretary-General on World Statistics Day 2025; October 20th.

World Statistics Day is an occasion marked once every five years to spotlight the vital role of statistics in helping to address the challenges of our time. The Sustainable Development Goals have helped transform statistical systems and increase the availability of data. In times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, statistical systems proved their resilience, delivering the data that guided life-saving decisions as well as social and economic recovery. As we confront increasingly inter-connected global challenges – from climate change to rising inequalities – timely, accurate, disaggregated, and independent data has never been more essential. This year’s observance reaffirms our commitment to the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics: impartiality, professionalism, and commitment to scientific principles and professional ethics. Citizens everywhere deserve trustworthy data to inform public policy and strengthen accountability. Let us use this day to champion the power of data in advancing sustainable development for all.

United Nations Secretary-General.

Read the statement in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian.

Statement of the UN Statistics Division Director General Mr Shantanu Mukherjee on World Statistics Day 2025; October 20th.

Dear Chief Statisticians, Dear Colleagues, I warmly invite you to join the global celebration of World Statistics Day on 20 October 2025. Celebrated every five years, this day recognizes the vital role of official statistics in informing decisions at all levels — from governments to individuals. This year’s theme, “Quality statistics and data for everyone,” reflects our shared commitment to producing and sharing high-quality, timely, and trusted data. At the heart of this mission are the national statistical offices. You are the backbone of our statistical systems — upholding professional standards, ensuring data quality, and delivering evidence that informs national and global action. You translate complex realities into meaningful numbers, provide continuity amid change, and safeguard the integrity of data. Since the endorsement of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, our community has made great strides in upholding relevance, impartiality, scientific rigour, and transparency. These principles, along with legal frameworks and quality assurance systems, underpin the integrity of official statistics. Alongside you, we, too, will be observing World Statistics Day. 2 At the global level, the commemoration will feature a 24-hour webinar marathon, moving across time zones, showcasing the work of national, regional, and international statistical systems. During the marathon, we will spotlight innovations across the statistical landscape — from the integration of new data sources and AI, to advances in methods that help us measure today’s complex realities, including inequality, climate change, and the digital economy. We will also hear about efforts to expand data access and usability, ensuring no one is left behind. Dear Colleagues, Official statistics are a public good — essential, but not without cost. I thank governments and partners for their support and call for continued investment in the statistical infrastructure. As we modernize, we must also build robust data governance frameworks to enable greater use of administrative and alternative data sources. At the same time, traditional tools like censuses and surveys remain indispensable, where we continue to need active engagement from the people we serve. Two major global frameworks, both adopted earlier this year by the Statistical Commission, reflect our continuing journey: • The 2025 System of National Accounts, updated to reflect the realities of globalization and digitalization, ensuring comparability and relevance in economic statistics. • The 2030 World Population and Housing Census Programme, which will yield essential disaggregated data for policy, planning, and monitoring of well-being. I thank all national statistical offices, regional and international partners, and users for contributing to World Statistics Day. Let us use this occasion to reaffirm our collective mission: delivering high-quality statistics to serve everyone, everywhere.

Every UN World Data Forum has resulted in the release of an outcome document to chart the progress of discussions around data and statistics and express the ambitions of the stakeholder community. The Cape Town Global Action Plan (CTGAP) was launched at the first UN World Data Forum on where to focus statistical and data capacity development efforts to establish the full range of reporting and monitoring needed to measure progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The CTGAP was followed by the Dubai Declaration (2018) calling for an innovative funding mechanism to support the implementation of the CTGAP; and more recently the Global data community’s response to Covid-19 (2020) and Bern Data Compact for the Decade of Action on the Sustainable Development Goals (2021) on how official statistics and National Statistical Offices (NSOs) position themselves during Covid-19 and then in the wider data ecosystem generally. At the most recent Forums held as the fourth and fifth in April 2023 and November 2024, the Hangzhou Declaration was launched to recommit the global community to accelerating progress in the implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development (CTGAP) and provided the foundation for the launch of the Medellín Framework for Action on Data for Sustainable Development. The Framework represents a second-generation document founded on the original CTGAP, reflecting the aspirations of the wider stakeholder base fostered by the Forum over the past seven years and marking the milestone that the Forum has now been hosted in all regions of the World.

The next Forum is planned in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to take place between 9 and 12 November 2026. Share your views on the upcoming 2026 United Nations World Datat Forum programme, complete the Community Survey. The information collected from the community survey will help shape the Call for Programme Proposals announcement which will be launched at the end of November 2025 and remain open until Monday, 12 January 2026.