SANTO DOMINGO– Every new road, residential tower, tourism project, or housing complex leaves a visible mark on the Dominican Republic. However, behind this growth lies a much less obvious reality: the country still faces significant limitations in statistically measuring the construction sector, one of the most important pillars of its economy.
The diagnosis appears in the National Statistical Plan 2025-2028 published by the National Statistics Office (ONE), which identifies Construction and Infrastructure among the sectors with the greatest challenges in producing official statistics capable of supporting national development planning.
The assessment conducted by the ONE concludes that significant statistical gaps still exist in both areas. The document notes that it does not record indicators classified at Feasibility Level I, the highest level of capacity to produce official information under established methodological standards.
The setback revealed by the diagnosis
One of the most revealing pieces of information in the report is the comparison with the previous National Statistical Plan.
While for the period 2021-2024 only 8% of the sector's indicators were classified at Feasibility Level II, the new diagnosis places that proportion at 89%, showing that most of the available information still requires methodological strengthening to reach higher levels of statistical quality.
The ONE also highlights that Construction and Infrastructure share this situation only with the Culture sector, since both lack indicators located at the maximum level of feasibility.
What does it mean that statistics are missing?
Beyond a technical problem, having less information means reducing the ability to understand how one of the country's main economic engines is evolving.
Official statistics make it possible to identify market trends, evaluate the impact of investments, understand the territorial behavior of urban growth, measure infrastructure needs, and support public and private decisions with evidence.
When such data presents methodological limitations or information gaps, the tools available for planning urban development and monitoring policies related to housing, infrastructure, and land use planning are also reduced.
The solution lies in producing better data
The National Statistical Plan itself recognizes that the challenge lies in strengthening the statistical production of the sector through sustained investments in the generation, collection and integration of information.
The document proposes to improve the standardization of existing records, expand the use of administrative sources, and consolidate data with higher technical quality to meet the planning and monitoring needs of public policies.
A challenge that goes beyond construction
The diagnosis also identifies structural weaknesses within the National Statistical System.
Among them is the fact that 27% of the statistical operations analyzed present problems of underreporting; only 51% use the official territorial division, which makes geographical comparison difficult; and nearly half continue to manage information through Excel databases, a limitation that increases the risks for handling large volumes of data and information security.
Despite these gaps, the ONE highlights progress in other areas, such as the increased use of administrative records, greater availability of open data, and the strengthening of institutional coordination, aspects that are part of the strategy of the National Statistical Plan 2025-2028 to raise the quality of the country's official statistics.
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