Abstract

As challenges facing National Statistics Offices grow more complex, GIS software has become essential to modern statistical operations — and AI is making it more powerful than ever.

GIS provides the spatial backbone for census planning, data collection, dissemination, and analysis. Enhanced with AI, it delivers insights faster and at greater scale, enabling automation, prediction, and optimization across the statistical production cycle.

This presentation will cover the fundamentals of GIS for official statistics, with a spotlight on AI: extracting features from imagery using deep learning, running predictive analytics with spatial statistics, and applying LLMs and generative AI to surface insights through natural language. It will also include a spotlight case study from NSO Malta about the value GIS brought to their 2021 census.