INSTRUCTIONS PAGE
PROMOTIONAL ITEM:
PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF STATISTICS AND YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CELEBRATION OF WORLD POPULATION DAY
Instructions:
Complete the press release with the prompted information, paste it to your organization’s news release letterhead (if available) or letterhead, and then email it to reporters at newspapers, magazines, web-based news services, television stations, and radio stations in your country or community. If you work at a college or university, also send the release to the student-run paper and/or radio station. Then, follow up with calls and emails to the reporters at these news outlets to ensure they have received the release and to answer any questions they may have.
Also, post the press release and the International Year of Statistics “participant” logo in a prominent location on the homepage of your organization’s public website, ideally so both items appears on the screen when the homepage first loads.
NOTE: Replace all text in yellow-highlighted brackets with prompted information. Be sure to delete all the yellow-highlighted text (including the brackets) after you have added the prompted information and before you distribute the release to the media and post it to your organization’s website.
For assistance or answers to your questions, contact ASA Public Relations Coordinator Jeff Myers at jeffrey@amstat.org or (703) 684-1221, Ext. 1865 (United States).
[Paste Text to Your Organization’s Press Release or Letterhead]
INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF STATISTICS PRAISES CONTRIBUTIONS OF STATISTICIANS TO ENUMERATING WORLD POPULATION
Statistics2013 participants join celebration of World Population Day
[INSERT YOUR CITY, COUNTRY, July [XX], 2013—In recognition of World Population Day 2013, the [Insert Your Organization Name] and the nearly 2,100 other organizations in 124 countries participating in the International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013) are spotlighting the contributions of statisticians to quantify the world’s constantly growing population.
Observed on July 11 each year, World Population Day is organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Each year a theme is selected to highlight a priority area of concern. The theme for this year is adolescent pregnancy, with UNFPA seeking to raise awareness of the issue in “the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.”
Statistics2013 is a worldwide initiative that is highlighting the contributions of the statistical sciences to finding solutions to global challenges, including the well-being of the world’s population. [Insert Your Organization Name] is a Statistics2013 participating organization.
Statisticians in every country around the world contribute significantly to providing more, better and timely information about population-related issues and concerns to the appropriate national and in some cases international government agencies, like the United Nations (UN).
In fact, thanks to a UN initiative titled the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses, in the last eight years 202 countries have conducted a nationwide census and in the process have enumerated an estimated 90% of the world’s population.
It is not a stretch to say that statisticians are vital to all forms of population research. Their contribution begins with the planning, development and conduct of national censuses and continues with the compilation and analysis of the results. Government agencies and private research groups alike use the data from these censuses to determine growth and migration trends, understand the ageing of their residents, study the ongoing urbanization of our global society, identify and plan for emerging issues, and a range of other population-related concerns. These entities then develop plans and programs that enable governments and private groups to meet the needs of their citizens or constituency, respectively.
“The valuable contributions of statistics and the world’s statisticians ensure that our countries—as individual states and as members of the United Nations—fully understand the dynamics driving our population,” says [Insert Your Organization Spokesperson’s First Name, Middle Initial, and Last Name]. “This critical knowledge is used by national governments and the United Nations to gain insight into the current and future needs of its citizenry and to develop and implement plans to address these growing and shifting needs.”
In honor of World Population Day and the thousands of statisticians around the globe who are working tirelessly to conduct national censuses and to monitor population trends and analyze related issues, the International Year of Statistics will feature on its website (www.statistics2013.org) several special items that highlight their important contributions to world population initiatives. These items will be featured starting Thursday (July 11) and will remain on the website through the following weekend:
•A Blog post, written by statisticians in the UN Statistics Division, about how a UN program is helping member states conduct censuses
•A Statistician Job of the Week article written by a statistician at the United Kingdom’s Office of National Statistics
•A Statistic of the Day focused on this year’s theme for World Population Day
•An insightful Quote of the Day related to the growth of the world’s inhabitants
•A population-related article from Significance magazine
The goals of Statistics2013 are to increase public understanding of the power and impact of statistics on all aspects of society and to nurture statistics as a profession among high-school and college students. Participants include national and international professional societies, universities, schools, businesses, government agencies and research institutes. These groups are educating millions of people about the contributions of the statistical sciences through seminars, workshops and outreach to the media.
The founding organizations of Statistics2013 are the American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, International Biometric Society, International Statistical Institute (and the Bernoulli Society), and Royal Statistical Society.
About [Insert Your Organization Name]
[Insert one or two sentence descriptive of your organization]. For additional information, please visit [Insert your organization’s web address] or call [Insert phone number].
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For more information:
[Insert media contact’s First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name]
Office: [Insert contact’s phone number]
E-mail: [Insert contact’s e-mail address]