Conclusions

By explaining the interaction between politics, official statistics, and ethics the question has been raised to which extent official statistics is seen as a plaything of politics. Extreme situations to work under dictatorships in the first half of the last century are certainly the exception. But statisticians are rightly and repeatedly asked by politicians to explain and justify their methodological procedures and work results. Rarely there is unanimous approval of the procedures developed; often there is criticism. There is a lot of work to be done by statisticians to determine how the many new phenomena are to be recorded and to what extent politics will provide the necessary support. The work of statisticians has by no means reached its end. The data on digitalisation and globalisation must be improved systematically and across countries, and the connections between climate change and demographic developments must be investigated in detail. In most cases, the description and analysis of these phenomena suggest that both supplementary statistical concepts need to be developed and additional data collected. For this purpose, the statistical standards of the SNA and the ESA will certainly have to be permanently updated.