President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has decided to designate the 20th of October every year as National Statistics Day. The President made this decision following discussions with his Cabinet on a paper presented during today's Cabinet meeting.

The paper, presented by the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, highlighted that the objectives of designating a National Statistics Day is to promote and develop the field of statistics in the country, including expanding usage in shaping and framing policies for decision making. Raising public awareness and building a statistics-friendly generation are also among the key objectives of designating a National day for the field.

In a letter to the heads of state earlier this year, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr António Guterres, invited "the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, as well as civil society, research institutions, media and all producers and users of official statistics, to do their part to highlight the value of statistics in meeting the challenges of our time."