Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI)

Reliable, usable, high-quality statistics are vital for global prosperity and progress. The Statistical Performance Indicators (SPI) provide an open-source framework for assessing the performance of statistical systems and the efforts to improve them.

Browse the map to see the overall SPI scores for 186 countries.

The SPI framework assesses the maturity and performance of national statistical systems in five key areas, called pillars.  The five pillars are:

Data Use: Statistics have value only if they are used. So the first pillar is data use. A successful statistical system produces data that are used widely and frequently.

Data Services: A range of services connects data users to producers and facilitate dialogues between them, thus building trust and a sense of value.

Data Products: The dialogues between users and producers drive the design and range of statistical products and their accuracy, timeliness, frequency, comparability, and levels of disaggregation. The products signal whether countries are able to produce indicators related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Data Sources: To create useful products, the statistical system needs to draw on sources inside and outside the government. Data collection thus goes beyond the typical censuses and surveys to include administrative and geospatial data as well as data generated by private firms and citizens.

Data Infrastructure: A mature statistical system has well-developed hard infrastructure (legislation, governance, standards) and soft infrastructure (skills, partnerships) as well as the financial resources to deliver useful—and widely used—data products and services.

Each of these pillars is supported by four or five dimensions and uses defined methods and indicators, all available as open data and open code. You can explore the data or learn more about the framework. 

Along with the new data, this release is accompanied by a brief “What’s New” document, and a protocol for quality assurance.