2.11 Time and space dimensions of data

The dimension of time has always been essential in official statistics. Data is collected in a way that allows the statistics to be analysed over time, showing developments and trends, and allowing comparisons between different periods or points in time. Periodicity and regularity are thus main preoccupations of official statistics – the statistical producers aim to provide their statistical outcomes at appropriate but short intervals and with specific regularity.

Official statistics have also always been related to a specific space, most often linked to an administrative concept – a country, a province, a district, a locality.

There has been increasing interest in geospatial data in recent years, i.e. microdata linked precisely to a specific geographic location. This has the potential to reveal relationships and phenomena which are difficult to discover by analysing statistical databases alone. In official statistics, geo-referenced data has been collected in population and housing censuses and household surveys, notably after introducing digital questionnaires on laptops, tablets, and cell phones. More recently, increasing use has been found for geospatial data in environment statistics and agricultural statistics. The interest in and use for geospatial data is clearly reflected in the sustainable development indicators. However, it should be born in mind that geo-referenced data is particularly taxing on data confidentiality.