The article addresses a current crisis in official statistics: with the expiry of the USAID-supported Demographic and Health Surveys in February 2025, a key source of data on population development, health and nutrition in over 90 countries will be lost. At the same time, planned cuts to environmental agencies are jeopardising the data basis for environmental monitoring and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The authors argue that citizen science can and must play a much stronger role in official statistics in the future. Their analysis shows that citizen science data could potentially support 48 indicators (around 60%) across 13 SDGs. However, this would require a fundamental change in perspective. Data voluntarily collected by the public should no longer be considered a secondary source, but recognised as an essential component of robust, inclusive and resilient statistical systems.
Some of the co-authors are also members of the EU project ‘RIECS-Concept’, in which the OeAD Centre for Citizen Science is working with twelve other partners on a future citizen science research infrastructure. Increasing the usability and relevance of citizen science data plays a central role in this project.
The article advocates a combination of traditional official surveys and targeted investments in citizen science to enable more flexible and adaptable data collection.
Reference:
Fraisl, D., See, L., MacFeely, S. et al. Why citizen science is now essential for official statistics. Communications Sustainability 1, 2 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44458-025-00008-4
