Open Data Standards

International organisations such as the World Bank and OECD use SDMX to share statistics data in an open and consistent way.

Government Organisations face similar challenges when sharing statistical data. Government statistical data needs to be shared with all levels of government, other organisations and the public.

This data forms the basis of important decision making. There are significant costs to the individual and exposure to risk to the agency if data is misinterpreted.

The challenge to agencies is to efficiently and effectively provide, collect and share these statistics.

The Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) format was created to address this challenge. SDMX provides an open standard for organisations to efficiently and automatically share statistical data. Unlike other simple data formats, its structure and use of meta-data specifically addresses the requirements of government statistics.

More value from investment in shared data Reduced risk of misinterpretation Dissemination not batch exchange Granular data queries via websites Web services not static pages Data not presentation

Government statistical data has a range of uses, from informing decision making at government policy level through to informing the decisions and choices that citizens make. Poor quality data, misinterpreting data or not providing any data all have an adverse impact to this decision making. SDMX as a statistical data standard for sharing data reduces these risks.