OREANDA-NEWS. On Monday 25 April, experts on statistics from Estonia and neighbouring countries will speak at an international conference in the Estonia opera hall about the role of statistics in a modern information society, the expectations and needs of users of statistics today, potential developments for statistics, and concerns about an ageing society.

The conference will be opened with video presentations by Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the Statistics Division at the United Nations, and Walter Radermacher, Director General of Eurostat.

There will be presentations from the statistics offices of Estonia and Sweden and from the University of Tartu on the history of statistics in Europe and Estonia, the path from agricultural and population data to the first population census, and the development of statistics in Estonia from independence to the turn of the century. The session will be chaired by Professor Kalev P?rna of the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Tartu.

Staff of Tallinn University, Nordregio and the OECD and a panel of Estonian experts will talk on international relations, the needs and expectations of users of statistics and the use of statistics in decision-making in a session chaired by Ardo Hansson, Governor of Eesti Pank.

The conference will end by looking to the future as experts from the Dutch statistical office, SEB and Tallinn and Tartu universities speak on exciting possible developments in statistics, the problems of an ageing society, specific features of the countries round the Baltic Sea, and statistics as seen through the prism of politics. The session will be chaired by Andres Oopkaup, Director General of Statistics Estonia.

The conference is being organised by Statistics Estonia, Eesti Pank and the National Institute for Health Development on the 95th anniversary of the Estonian statistical system.