Guidelines to visualise statistical information: Tables, graphs and maps THE CONTRACTOR IS ACTING UNDER A FRAMEWORK CONTRACT CONCLUDED WITH THE COMMISSION

Statistical data producers, yes! As all of us know, our purpose is to produce high-quality statistics

Statistical data producers, yes! Finally, here we have our perfect figure: 2,6% But what’s the point if nobody knows / finds / understands our data?

Statistical data producers, yes! So apart from producing high quality statistics, we might be interested in getting our data across… How can we do that?

Statistical data producers, yes! We can: Provide the user with good metadata Use user-friendly dissemination channels Enhance the statistical knowledge of our audience Publish our outcomes in an easy-to-read way Etc.

Statistical data producers, yes! To sum up, the answer to the previous question is too long and wide to be given in this presentation. Here we will just focus on how to publish our results in an easy-to-read way

Statistical data producers, yes! So, let’s give our data a nice, informative package! Tables, graphs and maps : )

Statistical data producers, yes!

Table is a table is a table is a table Table: a set of data organized in a grid We distinguish informative from presentation tables Informative: normally large tables extracted from databases Presentation: small tables that sum up the most important figures of a topic, normally used in publications

Tables: Do’s and Don’ts Title: what, when & where Rows and columns tagged Source Units Footnotes if needed

Tables: Do’s and Don’ts Information sorted (chronologically, alphabetically...) Same amount of decimals for every figure Numbers right justified Thousand separator (space better than ‘.’ or ‘,’) No empty cells (identify missing values)

Charts: a picture is worth a thousand words Visual representation of statistical data Facilitate comparison and identification of trends within the data Many types of them: Pie charts, lines, bars etc.

In a nutshell, a good chart should have Title Axis labels Gridlines Legend Source BUT: Avoid unnecessary features that makes the chart difficult to understand

Maps: statistics + geography They provide information related to statistical areas Show the spatial distribution of data

Maps: statistics + geography Two types: Choropleth: shaded areas Dot maps: information displayed using icons

A good map should have: Title Legend Units Scale Data source

To know more This presentation is strongly based on the UNECE guidelines ‘Making data meaningful Part 2’ http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/writing/ http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/documents/writing/MDM_Part2_English.pdf

Thank you for your attention!