Description: The session aims at gathering statisticians, data scientists and managers from the public, private and non-governmental sector whose specialization lies in both circular economy and composite indicator creation, evaluation and dissemination. The session strives to initiate discussion on an underrepresented direction of research – measuring circular economy activities using composite indicators. Namely, circular economy is a multidimensional phenomenon and therefore cannot be captured using solely individual indicators. The first paper has the goal to raise awareness on the issue of stability and robustness of composite indicators and inspects the Collaborative Economy Index on this matter. The following paper tackles the issue of grouping European Union countries based on their use of circular materials in the European Union. The specific case study presented in the following paper will observe a novel approach for creating composite indicators in the field of circular economy using ultrametric modelling. The final paper in the session will provide insights on the methodological aspect of the Circular Economy Index and the practical implications the chosen methodological steps have on the ranking of countries. The respective speakers, who are from both academia and NGO sector, who come from different countries and educational background, promise a presentation of scientific and statistical excellence with sense of practical implications, recommendations and suggestions for further research on the topic of understanding and measuring circular economy.

Justification: The motivation for this session is to provide insights into the novel state-of-art statistical approaches used to create and evaluate composite indicators in the field of circular economy and to raise awareness on the role statistics play in the process. It is believed that the session is to act as an impetus for further development of methodologies used and for debate on the policy implications of multidimensional metrics related to circular economy.

Intended Audience: It is hoped that the IPS will attract a wide audience. On the previous 63rd World Statistics Congress, the session chair organized an IPS on the topic of composite indicator creation and evaluation which was attended and attracted audience. Therefore, the proposed session will be a continuation of good practice from the previous congress which will add to the growing amount of knowledge on the topic.