AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION REQUIRES ROSSELLÓ NOT TO DISMANTLE PUERTO RICO'S STATISTICS INSTITUTE
The executive director attacked the measure and invited the Government to take statistics seriously at this time of fiscal crisis
San Juan, PR, January 25, 2018 — The American Statistical Association, known as the American Statistical Association (ASA) today released a cyber petition entitled Clear Accounts: Let's Preserve the Autonomy and Impartiality of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute in which he calls on both Governor Ricardo Rosselló and members of the Legislature to desist from transferring the functions of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (IEPR) to the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Trade in order to eventually outsource all the statistical functions of the Government of Puerto Rico.
The ASA request makes specific reference to Reorganization Plan No. 1 And to Senate Bill 809, which was published yesterday and signed by five scientists from prestigious entities such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Yale University.
In addition, he emphasizes that this measure “would dismantle the IEPR and its autonomy, and would jeopardize the transparent and impartial statistical analyses that are critical to the functioning of Puerto Rico and to decision-making in all sectors of society, public and private.”
To this end, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, insisted that everywhere in the world there is a recognition of the need for official statistics to be prepared by independent governmental entities so that they can carry out their functions in a manner totally disconnected from political influences.
The Government of Puerto Rico has a long history of producing, disseminating and presenting rigged, outdated, misinterpreted, and incomplete statistics, and then access to sources of information is not provided so that the information can be verified, either by the citizen or by a congressman. The reality is that statistics are a serious issue and it is time for our Government to take them seriously, particularly if it wants to address its own fiscal problem.
Marazzi Santiago assured that there is no way that the proposed reorganization of the Institute of Statistics, as a program within the Department of Economic Development and Trade or outsourced by it, will solve the serious problem of reliability and credibility that the Government of Puerto Rico has with its statistics.
“We appreciate the efforts of the American Statistical Association (ASA) to create a vehicle that allows data users to express themselves publicly about the proposed reorganization,” said Dr. Marazzi-Santiago.
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The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr, more than 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a guardian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.
For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.
Free workshops and webinars at the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics
For government officials and the general public
Starting today, Wednesday, February 22, 2023, pre-registration begins for the free offer of workshops and webinars offered by the Statistics Institute of Puerto Rico. This virtual offer of nine workshops with 16 sessions and three webinars seeks to provide solutions in the access, management and analysis of government statistical data and is carried out with rigor and quality in the development of content that is carried out by specialists.
The online format offers the opportunity to participate to government officials and the general public, since the format is asynchronous, that is, within the time available to the participant. In the same way, multiple sessions are included, allowing participants the flexibility to enroll on those dates that are most convenient. Interested individuals can complete pre-enrollment at Academy
The topics included are:
R statistical analysis software: one of the most commonly used open-access and user-friendly software for Data analytics and Data Science.
R basic: introductory workshop to help publicize and facilitate the adoption of this programming language for people interested in strengthening their resources for the processing, analysis, visualization and presentation of their statistical research.
RStudio: introduction to the integrated development environment (IDE, in English) for managing R, in the analysis, visualization and presentation of statistical analyses.
Tidycensus: R library that facilitates the access and processing of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, such as the Census, population estimates and the Community Survey.
Tableau Public: free platform that allows the use of interface commands to explore, create and publish data and visualizations online.
Resources from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Population and housing data: presentation and performance of practical exercises on the tool https://data.census.gov/ to search for data on population and housing in Puerto Rico.
Access to microdata from the Community Survey: tool for customizing variable crosses for the analysis of population and housing data in Puerto Rico.
QGIS for analyzing data by geographical regions: QGIS is an open source Geographic Information System (GIS). Together with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, maps can be generated to analyze housing, economic, social and demographic issues.
Resources from the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics:
Cost of Living Index and Calculator: presentation of a publication and Web App that allows us to compare the cost of living in Puerto Rico and different urban areas of the United States.
The Violent Death Surveillance System in Puerto Rico: project presentation and publication of data on violent deaths from a health perspective.
On the other hand, webinars are live sessions, in which participants can connect via the Internet to a platform where they can see and hear the speaker and ask the speaker questions after the session is completed.
The topics of the three webinars, with a capacity of 1,000 participants each, are:
Dominican population in Puerto Rico and its contrasts with the Puerto Rican population, 2015-2019: exposure to the microdata files of the U.S. Census Bureau and an example of their application to the study of the sociodemographic profile of the Dominican population living in Puerto Rico.
Geographic Delimitations of the U.S. Census Bureau: guidance on the various geographical levels used by the U.S. Census Bureau for the presentation of its data.
Violence and Femicide in Puerto Rico - Concepts and Statistics: aimed at advising participants on the importance of statistics on gender-based violence and femicide from a health perspective.
To access all the details of the Academies and Workshops Program, see Here.
The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is a governmental entity in the executive branch, with fiscal and administrative autonomy, whose main purpose is to ensure that Puerto Rico has complete, reliable statistics that are quickly and universally accessible. To learn more about the Institute of Statistics, you can access the website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. On social media through Facebook accounts (@statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR), Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) and LinkedIn (Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics).
PRESS RELEASE DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS REGARDING THE FINAL APPROVAL OF P. C. 1403 BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PUERTO RICO
Last night, the Legislative Assembly agreed on the Conference Committee and approved the House Project 1403 after deleting Chapter XII related to the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.
We thank and congratulate both the House and the Senate for having completed the approval of the reorganization of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, after having accepted our recommendation as well as the request of thousands of individuals and scientists, 47 world-renowned scientific organizations, 16 congressmen, the Puerto Rican National Agenda, the Private Sector Coalition, the Transparency Network, the Network of Foundations, the Academy for the Advancement of the Sciences, the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, among many others, who publicly called for the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics to remain an autonomous entity of the Government of Puerto Rico.
We reiterate our best willingness to hold an open dialogue regarding the future of the Institute of Statistics, its role within the Government of Puerto Rico and our society, so that we are allowed to continue working to ensure that the systems for collecting data and statistics, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable and accessible quickly and universally.
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