The ongoing COVID19 pandemic emphasizes the importance of reliable data and statistics in monitoring the spread of the disease. This helps world leaders in enacting policies that will prevent the further surge of COVID19 and minimize its spread to the most vulnerable population. We were also able to see availability of healthcare facilities and the progress of vaccination programs. It also provides us the status and overall number of people affected as well as its devastating effect to the economies of the different countries.

But even before the ongoing health crisis, data and statistics are well-known to be used in diverse fields of applications to help people and save lives. We used statistics to monitor the socio-economic status of people to identify the most vulnerable sectors of society to unemployment, disaster, and health crisis. Data and statistics are used to create predictive models to identify and mitigate the risk of natural calamities and disasters to the agriculture and population of certain areas. The design and statistical analysis of experiments in medical trials of pharmaceutical industries, ensures that our medicines are able to treat illnesses effectively and safely. We also used data and statistics to ensure that our devices, cars, and houses met the standard quality to make our lives safer and more comfortable. Statistics also play a crucial role in identifying populations that need support and aid in education, nutrition, and good governance.

UPLB Institute of Statistics and UP School of Statistics including other universities/colleges that train future statisticians will see this as the appropriate theme for this year’s SFCon. While aware of the different areas and application of statistics, this year’s theme will highlight the relevant contribution of data and statistics and its crucial role in saving lives.