Statistical indicator

Data element that represents statistical data for a set of characteristics, one of which allows for meaningful comparisons of the data.

An aggregation such as the number of accidents, total income or female members of parliament, are not in themselves indicators for comparison across countries, as they are not comparable between populations. However, if a transformation is applied to make the data comparable, e.g. number of accidents per thousand of population, average income, or female members of parliament as a percentage of the total, the result meets the criteria for an indicator.

Indicators can be used to reveal relative positions and/or show positive or negative change.

In an SDMX data modelling exercise, the modeller may typically decompose existing statistical indicators (say, from an existing exchange framework) into standard, normalised concepts such as Unit of Measure and other characteristics. An example is to take an indicator of Average weekly wage rate, and decompose it into the following concepts including Measure and its ancillary concepts:

• Measure: Wage rate;
• Unit of Measure: Currency per person;
• Aggregation operation: Mean;
• Indicator period: Weekly.

The terms "Measure" and "Statistical indicator" have often been used interchangeably, therefore the existing uses of the terms may differ from the definitions described here.

urn:sdmx:org.sdmx.infomodel.conceptscheme.Concept=SDMX:CROSS_DOMAIN_CONCEPTS(2.0).INDICATOR

SDMX, "SDMX Glossary Version 2.0", August 2018