Istat’s New Strategies to Increase Statistical Literacy

Official statistical information is a public good and therefore should become common heritage in a full sense. One of the fundamental aims of a National Institute of Statistics is to increase people’s statistical literacy. In order to achieve this, Istat decided to review its communication and didactic priorities and strategies and to start from young people: they must be considered as one of the key groups towards which new statistical literacy activities should be directed. 3 However, the main difference from the past lies in the idea of using the high computer technology and web 2.0 skills which young people nowadays possess in order to attract them to statistics. Our goal is clear: to increase young people’s statistical awareness in order to make them more responsible citizens. Many activities have been already performed and many others are going to be performed.