Towards certification of new statistics of public interest in France

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis and proposal to qualify new statistics of public interest in France. It describes the present situation regarding the qualification of statistics produced independent of the National Statistical System and the challenges related to their emergence, as these statistics may complement and sometimes challenge official statistics. The authors propose a three-tier mechanism; the first level is limited to self-documentation of a statistic based on a predefined template, the second level is the approval of such documentation, and the third level involves the approval of the documentation including the methodology and quality of output.