For official statistics to be relevant and used for decision-making, they have to be trusted by the (potential) users. For being trusted, their quality is of crucial importance. However, the quality of statistics depends on many different elements. The relative relevance of the different elements of quality depends on the actual use/purpose of the statistics. They have to be ‘fit-for-purpose’. In order to produce statistics of the necessary quality, the official statistics producers have to be trusted, too. For that, they not only need to have the necessary technical skills, methodologies, and access to the relevant underlying data, but also the right legal framework and governance structures. Transparency about all these elements and a reliable monitoring system are crucial for the (potential) users to be able to make their own informed judgment. The quality of official statistics is, however, not a static fact, but is subject to continuous challenges and a need for reevaluation as the to-be-measured phenomena and the information demands of society evolve. This leads to an ‘eternal quest for quality’ in official statistics.
