The European Statistics Competition (ESC) 2023 is on! Secondary school students from 19 countries will compete, first at national and then at European level, in the sixth edition of this statistical literacy contest.

Teamwork to solve statistical problems

The ESC is a school-based competition in which teams of secondary school students compete against each other by solving statistical problems, searching for data and producing statistical analyses. The aim is to promote statistical literacy among students, while encouraging teachers to use new educational materials based on official statistics.

As the competition reflects the different curricula across Europe, it is split into two phases:

1. The national phase, during which students compete against their peers in their own country using questions corresponding to their studies; and
2. a European phase, where the finalists represent their countries at European level and produce short videos on a statistical topic.

Over 17 000 students from 19 European countries participated last year

Over 17 000 students from 19 countries joined the fifth edition of the competition, which ran in the school year 2021-2022. Using official statistics, contestants in the European finals had to present their findings on what official statistics tell about the environment in their country/region. The students produced really powerful videos. The two winning teams were announced on 3 June.

Slovakia joins the contest this year

The sixth edition of the ESC is now ongoing in 19 countries. 18 countries participated also in previous editions of the competition: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. 1 country is new to the competition: Slovakia.

Teachers and students from those 19 countries can start building their teams and join the contest.

Please also keep an eye out for the public choice award which will take place in many countries. You will be asked to help choose the best videos!

How to take part

Registration for the national phase is open in many countries. Please go to the European Statistics Competition homepage at ESC_2023 (esc2023.eu) for more information.