World Statistics Day is celebrated every five years on October 20 to mark the importance of statistics in human lives. The day aims to create awareness about the achievements of official statistics that were based on the values of service, professionalism, and integrity. At its 41st Session in February 2010, the United Nations Statistical Commission proposed celebrating 20 October 2010 as World Statistics Day (Decision 41/109)
The first World Statistics Day was celebrated on 20 October 2010 with the theme "Service, professionalism, integrity: celebrating the many contributions and achievements of official statistics". On 3 June 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution and declared on 20 October 2015 as the Second World Statistics Day and decided to celebrate the Day every FIVE years on 20 October. The Second World Statistics Day theme was "Better data, better lives". Third World Statistics day was celebrated on 20 October 2020 with the theme "Connecting the world with data we can trust".
United Nations Statistical Commission
The United Nations Statistical Commission (StatCom) is a Functional Commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, established in 1947.
One of the best known subunits of the Statistics Division is the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), also known as the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN). This unit attempts to standardize the names of locations across languages, alphabets, and cultures.
Statistics
The word statistics is derived from the Latin word "status" and it means "political state" or "government" Statistics is a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data. Centuries ago, the word statistics referred to kings needing information about land, agriculture, population, and military.
Gottfried Achenwall
German philosopher, historian, economist, jurist, and statistician coined the term "statistics" in the middle of the 18th century as the science of statecraft concerning the collection and use of data by the state. He is counted among the inventors of statistics.
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was an Indian scientist and statistician and he is known as the father of Indian statistics. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. The formula is used widely in the field of cluster analysis and classification. Born on June 29, 1893, in Calcutta, he is also known for being one of the members of the first Planning Commission of free India.
He's also the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute- Kolkata.
India celebrates its statistics day on 29 June, the birthday of the statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.
Ronald Aylmer Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890-1962) was a British statistician and geneticist who pioneered the application of statistical procedures to the design of scientific experiments. He is known as the "Father of Modern Statistics and Experimental Design". For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who almost single-handedly created the foundations for modern statistical science" and "the single most important figure in 20th-century statistics".
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