1. Some Statistical Issues in Statistics New Zealand
Richard Penny
November 2012

2. Statistics NZ role
Produce official statistics for use by many people and organisations
We don’t know how people may use data
The data we release influences many things
Needs to be correct and on-time
Need to provide guidance on fitness for use
Canterbury Statistics Open Day

3. Issues Resolved Software evaluations Proxies responses
p% rule in confidentiality
Hedonic indexes – hedonic regression

4. p% rule Confidentiality has 2 steps (n,k)-rule used previously
Identify sensitive output
Desensitise the sensitive output
(n,k)-rule used previously
p% is related to what level of protection we want to provide

5. Issues in Progress Bayesian population estimates
Modelling data outputs
Selective editing

6. Selective Editing
Editing is checking that a unit record seems feasible
However, if infeasible does it make a difference to our outputs?

7. Issues to come Analysis of linked data
Estimates from multiple data sources
Quality checks for data – incl. reporting
Bayesian sample estimation

8. Bayesian Survey Estimation
We don’t do one-off surveys
Use previous results to inform current results
Calibrated Bayes – Little (2012)