Abstract

This is an exciting time to be part of official statistics. There is growing demand for statistical products that traditional surveys alone cannot address. Stakeholders want timelier, more accurate, more granular, and differently structured information about people, places, and the economy than ever before. New data sources and data science innovations allow us to meet those demands. In today’s digital era, massive amounts of data are generated as we go about our daily lives. This volume of data generated every day, through commercial and personal transactions and the management of federal, state, and local programs, continues to grow exponentially. This provides an incredible opportunity to revolutionize how we capture and use data to develop relevant products. Instead of limiting ourselves to the data our surveys produce, we can flip the paradigm to design products based on what data users need. To do this we must integrate our survey data with other data sources. This presentation will share how the U.S. Census Bureau plans to re envision its data enterprise based on a statistical product first approach. This approach includes eliciting the purposes and uses our data are to support, collaborating with internal and external data users to develop the products using ALL our data assets, and then embracing varying access modes for statistical product dissemination to support stakeholder needs at all levels of data acumen. The research and enabling technologies to support this journey has begun! This work will modernize and transform our official statistical infrastructure.