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Official statistics place particular emphasis on communication and dissemination of surveys’ results to citizens and stakeholders. This is typically done through the publication of press releases and presentation of aggregated data of statistical surveys. The use of web services and software that allow users to interact with the results of official statistics comes to further enhance communication, dissemination, literacy and overall quality of official statistics. This paper is related to the objectives and context of reaching a wider audience through engaging users and explains how an NSO (National Statistical Office) member without specialized knowledge of frontend-backend programming techniques can create such web services in R programming environment through “Shiny” library. The paper also reviews the issue of hosting “Shiny” apps and presents existing approaches. For demonstration purposes, an experimental version of such an application was constructed that presents in an interactive way the quarterly results of the new statistical product of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Greek business demography.

No abstract

The Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the National Statistical Institute of Greece, as the guarantor of the quality of official statistics in Greece, has been pursuing, since 2016, an ambitious strategy aiming to foster Statistical Literacy, focusing on strengthening ties with citizens in their dual capacity both as providers of data and ultimately as users of statistics, and thus, operate as crucial enablers of a smoothly functioning virtuous circle of official statistics. Objectives include the development of an understanding of basic methodologies and tools used in official statistics, along with the awareness of its institutional foundations and core principles. This critically contributes to the value of official statistics being spread and effectively communicated, making, at the same time, a convincing case for fact-based decision making in the daily lives of the main stakeholders. This article motivates the approach followed in developing a specific strategy on statistical literacy, outlines its philosophy and main objectives and browses through the array of initiatives and actions undertaken over the last five years. In addition, it explores the responsiveness of citizens to these initiatives and the extent to which these initiatives lead to an increased engagement of key targeted stakeholders.