The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Probabilistic population forecasts for informed decision making. Letter to the Editor.

Probabilistic population forecasts for informed decision making. Letter to the Editor.
Probabilistic population forecasts for informed decision making. Letter to the Editor.
Demographic forecasts are inherently uncertain. Nevertheless, an appropriate description of this uncertainty is a key underpinning of informed decision making. In recent decades various methods have been developed to describe the uncertainty of future populations and their structures, but the uptake of such tools amongst the practitioners of official population statistics has been lagging behind. In this letter we revisit the arguments for the practical uses of uncertainty assessments in official population forecasts, and address their implications for decision making. We discuss essential challenges, both for the forecasters and forecast users, and make recommendations for the official statistics community.
0282-423X
537-544
Bijak, Jakub
e33bf9d3-fca6-405f-844c-4b2decf93c66
Alberts, Isabel
18e331d1-b241-4d9e-a993-15403c75fd4e
Alho, Juha
324a87a0-1949-411c-bc8f-f2442ba7052d
Bryant, John
d18a9c25-73bf-4172-b987-3378da9ba775
Buettner, Thomas
2b2b281c-ca45-4d4b-a2d1-ddad6b5e1079
Falkingham, Jane C.
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Forster, Jonathan J.
e3c534ad-fa69-42f5-b67b-11617bc84879
Gerland, Patrick
5f8b0b5c-115d-44c2-9fd8-d633ceca8e32
Keilman, Nico
d7bd835e-86dd-4a8a-94cd-9c3ec788b837
King, Thomas
c08bce85-ffa8-4c6e-8211-f83aaeecfbb7
O'Hagan, Anthony
3e789a9f-a24b-482a-aaa5-3b39928385aa
Onorante, Luca
d454cb55-73a8-489a-b3ac-d45dd6f3cad9
Owens, Darragh
54f287bb-3146-4774-a97b-7d19c5809eea
Raftery, Adrian E.
d31f0168-3c63-4a4a-b6a8-019e48246376
Ševčíková, Hana
80c6a155-9875-4a63-9c77-12a198a7b959
Smith, Peter W.F.
961a01a3-bf4c-43ca-9599-5be4fd5d3940
Bijak, Jakub
e33bf9d3-fca6-405f-844c-4b2decf93c66
Alberts, Isabel
18e331d1-b241-4d9e-a993-15403c75fd4e
Alho, Juha
324a87a0-1949-411c-bc8f-f2442ba7052d
Bryant, John
d18a9c25-73bf-4172-b987-3378da9ba775
Buettner, Thomas
2b2b281c-ca45-4d4b-a2d1-ddad6b5e1079
Falkingham, Jane C.
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Forster, Jonathan J.
e3c534ad-fa69-42f5-b67b-11617bc84879
Gerland, Patrick
5f8b0b5c-115d-44c2-9fd8-d633ceca8e32
Keilman, Nico
d7bd835e-86dd-4a8a-94cd-9c3ec788b837
King, Thomas
c08bce85-ffa8-4c6e-8211-f83aaeecfbb7
O'Hagan, Anthony
3e789a9f-a24b-482a-aaa5-3b39928385aa
Onorante, Luca
d454cb55-73a8-489a-b3ac-d45dd6f3cad9
Owens, Darragh
54f287bb-3146-4774-a97b-7d19c5809eea
Raftery, Adrian E.
d31f0168-3c63-4a4a-b6a8-019e48246376
Ševčíková, Hana
80c6a155-9875-4a63-9c77-12a198a7b959
Smith, Peter W.F.
961a01a3-bf4c-43ca-9599-5be4fd5d3940

Bijak, Jakub, Alberts, Isabel and Alho, Juha et al. (2015) Probabilistic population forecasts for informed decision making. Letter to the Editor. Journal of Official Statistics, 31 (4), 537-544. (doi:10.1515/JOS-2015-0033).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Demographic forecasts are inherently uncertain. Nevertheless, an appropriate description of this uncertainty is a key underpinning of informed decision making. In recent decades various methods have been developed to describe the uncertainty of future populations and their structures, but the uptake of such tools amongst the practitioners of official population statistics has been lagging behind. In this letter we revisit the arguments for the practical uses of uncertainty assessments in official population forecasts, and address their implications for decision making. We discuss essential challenges, both for the forecasters and forecast users, and make recommendations for the official statistics community.

Text
Bijak_et_al_2015_JOffStat.pdf - Other
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 28 May 2015
Published date: 16 December 2015
Additional Information: Open Access
Organisations: Social Statistics & Demography, Statistics, Statistical Sciences Research Institute

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 379879
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/379879
ISSN: 0282-423X
PURE UUID: 4151f6d0-c4fd-4ae0-815e-0800a852d448
ORCID for Jakub Bijak: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2563-5040
ORCID for Jane C. Falkingham: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7135-5875
ORCID for Jonathan J. Forster: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7867-3411
ORCID for Peter W.F. Smith: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4423-5410

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Aug 2015 12:15
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:34

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Jakub Bijak ORCID iD
Author: Isabel Alberts
Author: Juha Alho
Author: John Bryant
Author: Thomas Buettner
Author: Jonathan J. Forster ORCID iD
Author: Patrick Gerland
Author: Nico Keilman
Author: Thomas King
Author: Anthony O'Hagan
Author: Luca Onorante
Author: Darragh Owens
Author: Adrian E. Raftery
Author: Hana Ševčíková

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×