Statistics

  • Improving the Speed and Accuracy of Agricultural Statistics

    16th February 2022 by

    Sunrise over a field of vegetable crops demonstrating the dawn of new coding and improving the speed and accuracy of agricultural statistics

    This month, the team are looking at improving the speed and accuracy of our agricultural statistics. They focussed on the computer code and the time taken from receiving data to producing statistics. And, we are learning from gaming and software development. In simple terms, it is a way of coding that removes errors. It also...

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  • Agricultural Statistics Transformation Programme Begins

    29th October 2021 by

    Beginning next month, my unit is stepping up work on our ‘Agricultural Statistics Transformation Programme’. I previously spoke about the last December Survey and now we are looking at our other data products. By engaging with internal staff and a wide range of stakeholders across Scotland and the UK, we will improve the data we...

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  • Making Better Use of Data for Land-Use and the Environment

    13th September 2021 by

    Picture of Scottish Agricultural Landscape in a hilly upland region. The picture is taken in Summertime and has a field of cows in the foreground. It is taken from a wide-lens and conveys the theme of making better use of data for land-use and environment

    In this blog I will talk about work we are doing to make better use of data and evidence for land-use and the environment. I am also calling out to environmental and land-use analysts to get involved. Previously I wrote about improving the use of data that we hold with projects like data linkage. This...

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  • Farming Families Wellbeing in the 21st Century

    14th July 2021 by

    Picture of a farming family projecting families wellbeing. Mother and daughter are feeding a cow.

    From farm data to families wellbeing Last month I wrote about our new Scottish Crop Map data. But we are also getting the most from the data we already have. One such project aims to link anonymised farm data to other national surveys and data sets like Scotland’s Census. This will help us look at...

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  • Agricultural Statistics, Data Science and a Crop Map

    21st May 2021 by

    A mosaic picture of the fields produced by the data science crop map of an anonymous selected area colour coded by predicted crop type

    As an analyst with a passion for maps and data science, I am excited about our new data science crop map of agricultural land-use. It helps to improve the accuracy of our statistics which I mentioned in my last blog post. But first let me highlight some other releases, as it has been a busy...

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  • Could this be the last December Agricultural Survey?

    23rd March 2021 by

    Welcome to the first blog on Agricultural Statistics. Through this regular note we will update farmers, agents and other people interested in agricultural food production and associated supply chains on gathering statistics through surveys and other methods. The statistical teams in the Rural and Environmental Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division support many policy areas...

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  • RESAS: Revised Schedule of Agricultural Surveys and Outputs

    27th April 2020 by

    Rural and Environmental Science and Agricultural Services (RESAS) collect a range of statistical information on the agricultural sector which is the evidence base for the majority of our analysis on agriculture. However, in light of the current guidance from the Scottish Government and the Chief Medical Officer we have had to change our planned schedule...

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  • Working as a government statistician – Lisa Lochran

    10th January 2020 by

    With the Scottish Government welcoming applications for Assistant Statistician posts, we have a series of blog posts by government statisticians talking about how they became Assistant Statisticians. We also have some fixed term opportunities available now. If you are interested in a fixed term opportunity, please submit your up to date CV to: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot In...

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  • GDPR  – a change to data protection law

    24th May 2018 by

    The General Data Protection Regulations comes into force on May 25, 2018, giving individuals more control over their personal data, and ensuring that organisations collect and process that information properly and securely. To find out more about GDPR, visit the Information Commissioner’s website.

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  • New blog platform

    28th February 2017 by

    We are piloting this new blog platform which we’ll use to post updates on important announcements about Scottish Official statistics, our statistics publications, consultations and events. This is likely to replace the ScotStat automated email system that we currently use to provide updates on announcements, if the pilot is successful. The blog is openly available...

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