Courrier des statistiques N10 - 2023

With issue 10, the Courrier des Statistiques journal celebrates its five years of publication in a new format and continues to explore issues and methods in the area of official statistics.
The review begins with a topic that is now unavoidable for statisticians: datavisualisation. Falling between dissemination and communication, datavisualisation seeks to simplify messages to make them more easily understood by readers and to make people want to read them.
The second article, on defence statistics, addresses an area in which data, which are often sensitive, are both highly confidential and open to researchers under very secure conditions.
What administrative data should be studied, what surveys should be used and what choices should be made in relation to statistics on sport? This is precisely what the third article is about.
In this issue, two articles on registers echo those already published on this subject in issue 8. FINESS is the French register of health and social establishments and plays a fundamental role in the ecosystem of health information systems. Ramsese, the French academic and ministerial register of educational establishments, is used in a wide variety of ways: for governance, management, interoperability and statistical needs. A shared feature of these two registers is that they are both, in their respective fields, organised centrally and subject to high quality requirements.
Finally, the last paper uses an educational approach and striking examples to discuss the differences between random and non-probability sampling.

Courrier des statistiques
Paru le :Paru le12/02/2025
Christine Lagarenne, Frédéric Minodier and Odile Samson
Courrier des statistiques- February 2025
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How should we present our data to communicate better?

Christine Lagarenne, Frédéric Minodier and Odile Samson

The image is a powerful vector of transmission: messages are passing quite instantly from the eye to the brain where they become information. That’s why image has been used by statisticians, starting from 19th century when maps and charts were made popular (Rendgen, 2020). Storytelling was added to spell out the intended message, before web technologies completed the scope by enabling the general public to easily access a very large amount of data and by helping to comprehend them through dynamic media. Graphic semiology and design are complementary: semiology has improved the effectiveness of illustrations in terms of comprehension; design helps to reduce the reading effort. When it comes to producing a datavisualisation or dataviz, the statistician’s basic rules must be kept in mind (metadata, rigour and presentation of figures). When implementing, simple and generic solutions should drive choices to enhance user experience and enable statisticians to keep the control for technology, especially in the highly evolving environment. Using dataviz, a mean of communication, official statistics continue to enlighten public debate and to keep it well informed with large amounts of highly accessible data.