The 2006 OECD Factbook

Enrico GiovanniniOECD Chief Statistician

March 2006

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The inspiration

Information is not knowledge (Albert Einstein) Today we are bombarded by information (Jean-Claude

Trichet) An investment in knowledge pays the best interest

(Benjamin Franklin) Beware of false knowledge: it is more dangerous than

ignorance (George Bernard Shaw) By adopting key indicator systems, we will be able to

generate quality information that can help individuals, institutions and nations accelerate progress and make better choices (David Walker)

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Risks coming from uniformed decisions

Citizens: “people often use ideology as a short-cut heuristic for deciding what position to take, when properly informing oneself is difficult“ (Blinder and Krueger, 2004)

Businesses: New economy “bubble” started with public statements based on wrong facts about the importance of Internet and e-commerce: “Internet traffic is doubling every 100 days (2000); “E-commerce: a digital tsunami (1997)

Policy makers: “I saw some statistics which show the bad performances of our schooling system. I do not know if they are true or not and I do not care. However, I decided to address this important issue”

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Demand for quality statistical information about the performance of countries

A lot of information is available Very uneven quality Users are not fully able to distinguish between good and

bad quality information Need to go beyond the measurement of economic

performances (GDP) Participation of the civil society in defining society’s goals

Three main approaches: Integrated economic/environmental and social accounts Composite Indicators Key Indicators

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The first OECD World Forum on “Statistics, Knowledge and Policy” (Palermo, November 2004)

(see www.oecd.org/oecdworldforum)

The Forum addressed key issues for the development of modern democracies:

the transparency and accountability of public policies; people’s capacity for understanding the characteristics

and the evolution of the economies and societies in which they are living;

the role of statisticians, media, civil society, etc. in contributing to the development of a common facts-based knowledge among citizens;

the measurement of overall progress of a country/region/community.

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World Forum follow-up

The Forum asked the OECD to: launch a medium-term process on key indicators, through

electronic discussion groups, specialised workshops, etc.; organise a second World Forum in two-three years time.

To respond to this request, the OECD has: Developed the OECD Factbook; Designed a horizontal project on “Indicators for measuring

progress and indicators for policy making”; Commenced the preparation of the second World Forum

(Turkey, June 2007).

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The OECD Factbook (1)

The Factbook presents, in an integrated way, a carefully selected range of more than 150 indicators covering 10 broad thematic areas: – Population and migration, – Macroeconomic trends,– Prices,– Labour market, – Science and technology, – Environment, – Education, – Public policies, – Quality of life.

Special chapter (energy in 2005, economic globalisation in 2006)

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The OECD Factbook (2)

Tables and graphs illustrating in a user-friendly manner long-term trends and the relative ranking of countries

Definitions of the indicators and comments on their comparability, thus enabling users to evaluate the relevance and value of specific data

Portal to other OECD statistical and analytic publications useful for further research and understanding

Factbook data are also used to prepare individual Country Statistical Profiles, available in the new “country pages” of the OECD Web site.

The Factbook provides tables and charts organised by topic; Country Statistical Profiles present the same information by country.

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The OECD Factbook: A great success

Paper version available in:– English, French, German, Japanese– Soon also in Spanish and Portuguese

The online version of the Factbook is available for free

Visits and hits– 25,000 monthly downloads of Factbook tables– 30,000 monthly visits to Country Statistical profiles– The most visited “special” OECD site– 3,500 paper copies sold

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The 2006 OECD Factbook: new features

More tables, improved chapters (especially Quality of Life)

Data for Brazil, China, India, Russian Federation, South Africa

Longer time series in the on-line version

More metadata (footnotes) in the on-line version

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And now, let’s look at some tables

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