About National Statistics Day
National Statistics Day, officially Statistics Day, is marked in India on 29 June, the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, who founded the Indian Statistical Institute and built the country's system of large sample surveys. The Government of India designated the day in 2007. In 2027 it falls on Tuesday, 29 June 2027, and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation marks it with a theme of national relevance.
Most of what India knows about itself between two censuses, from household spending to jobs to health, comes from sample surveys. Statistics Day honours the man who made those surveys work at the scale of a country.
Why is Statistics Day celebrated on 29 June?
Statistics Day falls on 29 June because Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis was born on that day in 1893 in Calcutta. The Government of India designated his birthday as Statistics Day in 2007, and it has been kept every year since with a theme of national relevance. The day in 2026 was the 20th Statistics Day.
Mahalanobis died on 28 June 1972, one day before his 79th birthday.
What did P. C. Mahalanobis do for India?
P. C. Mahalanobis built India's statistical system almost from scratch. He studied physics at Presidency College in Calcutta and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he came across the journal Biometrika and turned to statistics. Back in Calcutta he applied it to problems in anthropology, weather and floods.
- 1893Born
29 June, in Calcutta.
- 17 Dec 1931Indian Statistical Institute
Founded in Calcutta; formally registered in April 1932.
- 1933Sankhya
Launches India's first statistics journal, modelled on Biometrika.
- 1945Fellow of the Royal Society
Elected in London.
- 1950National Sample Survey
Sets up the nationwide system of household surveys.
- 1956Second Five-Year Plan
His model of industrial growth shapes the plan's focus on heavy industry.
- 1959Institution of national importance
Parliament gives ISI that status.
- 1968Padma Vibhushan
India's second-highest civilian honour.
Two of his ideas are still in daily use. The Mahalanobis distance measures how far a point lies from the centre of a group of data, taking into account how the variables move together. It shows up today in machine learning and cluster analysis. His other contribution was method: he showed that a carefully designed sample could give reliable answers much faster and more cheaply than counting everyone, and he introduced the practice of running a small pilot survey before a large one. He also helped set up the Central Statistical Organisation.
How is Statistics Day observed?
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) holds the national event, where the year's theme is discussed, reports are released and awards are presented.
| Year | Theme |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Use of Data for Decision Making |
| 2026 | Unlocking the Potential of Administrative Data |
The 2026 theme was about administrative data, the records government departments already generate while running schemes, and how better quality and linking of those records can support policy. MoSPI also released a progress report on the National Indicator Framework, which tracks India's progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals through 277 indicators.
The day is also when the Prof. P. V. Sukhatme National Award in Statistics is presented. It is given every two years to an Indian statistician aged 45 or older for lifetime contribution. The 2026 award went to Arup Bose, a retired professor of the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.
What to write on Statistics Day
Happy Statistics Day. Thanks for being the person who asks "what's the sample size?" before anyone else does.
On Statistics Day, thank you for the doors you knock on in the heat. Every figure in the report starts with you.
Happy Statistics Day, Ma'am. You made standard deviation make sense, which I still count as a small miracle.
Happy Statistics Day, team. Here's to clean data, honest error bars and dashboards people actually read.
Happy Statistics Day. Hope Mahalanobis's institute is celebrating him properly, with tea and a very long seminar.
Statistics Day falls two days after MSME Day and two days before Chartered Accountants' Day. For another day that honours an Indian scientist, see National Science Day.
How to wish someone on National Statistics Day
Statistics Day wishes go to the people who count India: statisticians, survey enumerators, data analysts, economists and teachers of the subject. A good message is specific about the work, such as a survey season, a report, a dataset cleaned by hand, and a little dry humour about numbers is welcome in this crowd.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is National Statistics Day in 2026 and 2027?
National Statistics Day is on 29 Jun every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
Who is called the father of Indian statistics?
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis is widely called the father of Indian statistics. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute in 1931, started the journal Sankhya and set up the National Sample Survey in 1950.
When was Statistics Day first observed in India?
The Government of India designated 29 June as Statistics Day in 2007, and it has been observed every year since. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation chooses a theme for each year's observance.
What is the Mahalanobis distance?
The Mahalanobis distance is a measure, devised by P. C. Mahalanobis, of how far a data point lies from the centre of a group, adjusted for how the variables are correlated. It is widely used in classification, outlier detection and machine learning.
What is the Sukhatme award?
The Prof. P. V. Sukhatme National Award in Statistics honours an Indian statistician aged 45 or above for lifetime contribution. It is given every two years and presented on Statistics Day by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
What was Mahalanobis's role in the Five-Year Plans?
As a member of the Planning Commission, Mahalanobis designed the growth model behind the Second Five-Year Plan (1956–61), which gave priority to heavy industry and capital goods. The approach is often called the Mahalanobis model.
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