Abstract

This paper examines how federalism and administrative decentralization shape the coherence, credibility, and timeliness of official statistics. Treating statistical quality not only as a technical property but as an institutional and political outcome, it analyzes how the territorial organization of the state affects the production of national statistical indicators. Using a comparative qualitative design, the study examines seven federations representing diverse configurations of legal authority, coordination mechanisms, professional norms, and subnational data ownership.
The findings show that decentralization does not inherently undermine statistical integrity. Rather, outcomes depend on whether federal statistical authorities have reliable legal and institutional access to data owned and generated by subnational governments. Where access to subnational data is weakly institutionalized or politicized delays and vulnerabilities emerge. The paper concludes that statistical integrity depends on institutional alignment between data ownership and statistical authority.