Who Collects Data for Cross-National Comparisons?

Most data in the UK Data Service international macro data collection are collected and processed by national statistical agencies, which are responsible to and mainly funded by their national governments. Data will be collected by surveys, censuses, commissioned and uncommissioned work by academic statisticians and social scientists and through government agencies responsible for taxation and customs matters, government departments, central banks and reputable commercial organisations. Some series will be produced by international agencies such as the World Health Organisation and others by international organisations/intergovernmental organisations (IGOs).

The statistical divisions of IGOs collate and publish data series from these sources. In cases where the IGOs produce their own series, this will always be done in collaboration with national statistical agencies, who will often undertake part of the task.

The statistical organisations of the IGOs are responsible for setting standards for the quality and integrity of statistical services, for the standardisation of metadata and for the production of cross-nationally comparable statistical series.

IGOs have international legal status, which differentiates them from NGOs (non- governmental organisations). The legal status is generally derived from the formation of the organisation through treaty, though the exact nature of the treaty differs from organisation to organisation. Standards and comparability are often implemented by national laws and regulations through national adoption of IGO standards.

There is a strong de facto incentive for IGO standards to be adopted by national governments as both private and public cross-country financial arrangements such as:

• cross national loans,
• credit arrangements,
• cross national banking,
• direct and portfolio international investment,
• international trade arrangements etc.

require credible statistical information, often so perceived by the extent of adoption and application of IGO standards and use of IGO accepted cross-national and comparable definitions and methodologies.

The most important IGO is the United Nations, whose Statistical Commission reports to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the UN (whose members are periodically elected by the UN General Council itself). The Commission plays the lead role in setting standards and encouraging them to be disseminated and applied across the world. It commissions or encourages other IGOs to work on improving standards, metadata and comparability of data series. The Commission formally adopts standards, metadata and new revisions of major data sets at the level of national accounts, industrial classification etc.. The work of the Commission is carried out by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD). The Division itself is a major producer of international aggregate statistics.

The other IGOs whose databanks are made available through the UK Data Service include:

• International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• World Bank
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Eurostat
• International Energy Agency (IEA)

The IEA was formed from within the OECD and continues to work closely with it as an autonomous agency. Eurostat is the statistical organisation of the European Union and is responsible to the European Commission.

As well as their specialisms, the statistics divisions of the World Bank, OECD and Eurostat work in cooperation on issues relating to the cross-national comparability of economic, social, demographic, energy and other statistics.