Statistics and Registers – The Foundation for Sound Decisions

Registers of population, businesses, properties and addresses are fundamental to societal planning. At the same time, most developing countries lack access to good and relevant statistics and registers. Cooperation on statistics and registers contributes to more knowledge-based planning and thereby to better governance in Norway’s partner countries.

Stronger statistical systems for better governance

Through the statistics and registers programme, Norad works to strengthen national statistical systems in their efforts to produce and publish high-quality official statistics, and to promote better understanding and use of official statistics in partner countries and within international development cooperation.

The statistics and registers programme promotes Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, and Goal 17 on partnerships for the goals. In addition, through improved governance, the programme contributes to a number of other Sustainable Development Goals, such as Goal 1 on ending poverty and Goal 10 on reducing inequalities between countries.

Data are essential for measuring progress on all the Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving the goals requires the collection, preparation, analysis, publication, and dissemination of large amounts of data. This must take place at the local, national, regional and global levels. Good official statistics therefore play an important role in fulfilling the commitments of the 2030 Agenda.

Data as a basis for political decision-making

Access to data and statistics is necessary for planning, implementing and following up political decisions. Official statistics, as a credible source of independent information, help ensure that decision-makers can be held accountable, given that the factual basis is available and open to everyone.

The need for statistics and data is greater than ever before, but the capacity of many national statistical systems is not sufficient to deliver what is required. There is a lack of good and relevant statistics in the vast majority of developing countries. This also applies to disaggregated data. In many countries, there is insufficient knowledge and data on women and men and on different population groups, and therefore on how they are affected differently by public services and measures.

Most statistical offices in the Global South still rely heavily on direct data collection, that is, surveys and censuses. However, funding for these and the willingness to respond to them are both declining.The situation was worsened by the COVID pandemic, as many developing countries rely on face-to-face interviews for data collection. At the same time, global digitalisation has led to more actors collecting data, which statistical producers can make use of if they gain access to those data.

Registers as an important source of information

All countries collect information about their populations for administrative purposes. This is basic infrastructure that can provide an overview of entitlement to services and help promote social and economic development, transparency and good governance.

Core registers of population, businesses, properties and addresses are central to this. To make good use of these registers, they must meet certain quality standards, meaning that they must be complete and up to date. Norway has a strong tradition of using registers for efficient and effective public administration.

Registers can also be a potential source for a country’s statistical system. In Norway, around 90 per cent of statistical production is based on administrative data. As more administrative registers are digitalized in partner countries, more countries will be able to make use of this data source in the future.

At the same time, it is important that registers are managed properly, that privacy is protected, and that general information relevant to decision-making is made publicly available.

Financing statistics and register development

Access to good statistics and reliable registers requires more predictable and long-term financing than many countries currently have. Financing has often been short-term and project-based rather than aimed at sustainable development of national systems and capacity. The Seville Commitment from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025 is an important first step, because it highlights the need to strengthen national data and statistical systems.

Norway plays a central role in following this up through the Seville Platform for Action initiative FfD and the Future of Data, which the country leads together with Colombia and the United Kingdom. Further progress requires stronger international cooperation and investments that build institutions, expertise, registers and data governance over time.

Knowledge cooperation and long-term partnerships

Norwegian cooperation on statistics and registers takes place mainly through the knowledge programme for statistics and register cooperation. This knowledge programme targets the entire national statistical system, that is, all producers and users of official statistics.

The main objective of the programme is to strengthen the ability of national statistical systems to produce and use high-quality official statistics as a prerequisite for measuring progress on the 2030 Agenda. A holistic approach to all actors involved in statistical production and data delivery is important in order to build mutual trust and ensure good information flows.

Partners at national, regional and global level

The knowledge programme for statistics and register cooperation draws on the expertise of Norwegian professional environments, especially through institutional cooperation with sister organisations in developing countries.

The most important Norwegian partner is Statistics Norway (SSB). Institutional cooperation is the best way for partner institutions to benefit from the knowledge held by SSB and other Norwegian institutions. Cooperation should be long-term and predictable, demand-driven, and emphasise ownership by the partner institutions. The professional cooperation is flexible and adaptable, and is based on the partner institutions’ own priorities.

SSB also cooperates with other Norwegian public institutions, such as the Norwegian Tax Administration under Tax for Development, and the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs, linked to gender equality policy and statistics across different sectors through Equality for Development (Lifu).

Norad also supports the multilateral system in developing global standards and implementing measures at country level through global programmes.

The United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) builds statistical capacity at country level and through the UN Statistical Commission.

The Statistical Commission is the highest body in global statistical cooperation and is responsible for setting statistical standards, developing methods, and implementing them both internationally and nationally. Norway supports its Data for Now programme, in which project countries are able to set priorities for which statistics should be developed.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also an important partner working to develop more and better data for political decision-making, particularly in macroeconomics. Norway supports, among other things, its Data for Decisions programme and the regional development centres in Africa.

UNDP’s Global Policy Centre for Governance also receives Norwegian support for its work to strengthen data sharing and systems, including to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation.

For more information, please contact the Section for Governance.