World Bank2023-10-162023-10-162023-10-16https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/40471The digital revolution has changed the operating environment for statistics and has increased competition in the information space. The operating environment for NSOs has changed significantly in the past decades. Computing power once prohibitively expensive has become affordable even for low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Data that had to be collected manually are now ubiquitous because of digitalization and e-government initiatives, which have also created a constant flow of data from citizens and businesses to government agencies. The rollout of national ID programs, unique business entity identifiers, and national address registers have created the potential for integrating data from disparate databases. However, the vast new technical possibilities have been accompanied by intense competition in the information space. NSOs that were once the main, or in some cases the only, providers of socioeconomic information, are being challenged by new, nimbler, and more data savvy players who are not bound by the rigid definitions and standards of official statistics. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified this trend, with a proliferation of data sites providing near to real-time data on the impact of the pandemic on public health, livelihoods, labor markets, and the economy.en-USCC BY-NC 3.0 IGODATADEVELOPMENTSTATISTICSCAPACITY BUILDINGReportWorld Bank10.1596/40471