The concept of “quality in statistics” has evolved a lot in recent decades. Traditionally, this concept focused on specific standards of precision and range accuracy. However, currently, quality in statistics is a multidimensional concept that reflects the set of characteristics of statistics, in which the institutions and National Statistical Offices of the world promote a broad definition of statistics, in which the user's responsibilities are at the center.
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Specifically, for this movement, the quality of the statistics depends not only on the accuracy or absence of biases, but also on the consistency between their characteristics and the needs of the users. For example, in the United States, the Information Quality Act (Public Law 106‐554) was approved, through which the government established a series of criteria that define the concept of quality of statistical information. Among them, it stands out that agency statistics are “useful” in terms of meeting the needs of users. The European Statistics Office, Eurostat, approved the criteria that define the statistics produced by all member countries of the European Community, including as an example that statistics are “timely”, in the sense that they are released quickly enough to be used by users for decision-making.

Puerto Rico has joined this movement with the creation of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics. The Institute seeks to make it a reality that Puerto Rico has world-class statistics. For this purpose, it uses its Statistics Quality Criteria Regulation, approved in August 2008, which is available here. These Regulations establish the criteria that define the concept of quality that we promote for statistics produced by the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico: