Confidence in U. S. Federal Statistical Agencies

Abstract

At a time when public confidence in the Federal government is at an all-time low, Federal statistical agencies were interested in knowing whether their image would suffer as well. Using data gathered in the Gallup Daily Poll to answer this question, we found that, as level of knowledge about federal statistics increases and for data users, respondents’ discrimination among government entities seems to increase – the strength of the relationships between confidence in the Federal Statistical System, on one hand, and in Congress and the Military, on the other, decreases. In a time when confidence in Congress is particularly poor, increasing knowledge about the statistical system and increasing the public’s use of statistical data, through programs like “Statistics in Schools” could help people differentiate between sectors of the government, thus increasing confidence in the Federal Statistical System.