One result of the Enlightenment was the marriage of the nation state and (official) statistics. The establishment of nation states required reliable statistics, as well as necessitating political decisions within said states. Similarly, the emergence of international (e.g. UN) and supra-national (EU) institutions has been accompanied by the development of statistical infrastructure. Systems of official statistics were designed to measure national economies and economic activities, with the exception of international trade in goods. With the increasing importance of globalisation, these conditions and the requirements for official statistics systems have changed fundamentally. These changes affect all levels (basic statistics, accounts, indicators) and all statistical processes (design, production, communication). They require new methods of cooperation between national statistical institutions and new conventions between users and producers concerning the priorities and quality requirements set for statistical components. Last but not least, these changes also require close and trust-based cooperation between the actors at the national and interor supranational statistical levels. Meeting these challenges requires more than just a technical and methodological approach. Rather, it is necessary to understand and manage the effects of further developments and modernisation as part of the overall system of official statistics.
