The Statistical Is, and Always Has Been, Political

Politicians and advocates across the political spectrum have called for health policy to follow the data. But the political implications of this claim depend on the data that are collected, the analysis methods used, and the standards for evidence that are applied or ignored. As the political nature of public health has come to the forefront of public policy, so has the political aspect of the statistics that underpin public health research and practice. Power and political economy have always shaped data, even when data are portrayed as technocratic and apolitical. Statistical methods are built on assumptions about the world, as they have been since their inception. And the demand for a specific type of causal or cost‒benefit evidence for some policies, or what counts as evidence, is a political, not technical, claim. Rather than attempting to claim legitimacy by retreating from the political aspects of public health, biostatisticians need to confront this role head-on, acknowledge the political and social structures that shape our work, and engage fully at the intersection of the political and the statistical. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print August 27, 2026:e1-e7. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308640).