Italian Statistics Olympics 2026

The Olympics are aimed to encourage students to approach statistical reasoning, to arouse their interest in data analysis and probability, to enable them to better understand the meaning of the quantitative information they receive every day.

The initiative is open to upper secondary school students (classes 1-4). Registrations for schools and students open on 21 October 2025 and close on 25 November. To register the school and then individual students, the contact teachers (one per school) must go to the online registration form (Italian only).

For each enrolled student, the contact teacher collects the parental consent form for participation (data privacy notice and parental authorisation – Italian only); these forms must be collected by the contact teacher and kept by them, without sending them to the email address dedicated to the competition.

The individual tests will be held over four days: from 12 to 15 January 2026, as stated in the Rules.

Below is the schedule divided by regions:

• 12 January 2026 (schools in Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardia, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia);
• 13 January 2026 (schools in Veneto and Emilia-Romagna);
• 14 January 2026 (schools in Liguria, Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Molise and Campania);
• 15 January 2026 (schools in Abruzzo, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sardegna and Sicilia).

Should the number of enrolled students exceed a certain threshold, the tests could be extended to 16 January 2026.

In that case, prompt notification would be given to the schools once registrations have closed.

Individual tests consist of a set of multiple choice questions, administered online, on statistics topics as set forth in the Competition Rules.

The assignments of the previous editions, with solutions and comments, are available in the Competitions pages of past years: : 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (Italian only).

Further information is available in available in the Competition announcement and in the Rules, adopted by resolution of the Istat President. The top 3 ranked students in the individual tests for each year of study (I, II, III, IV) are inserted in the “Albo nazionale delle Eccellenze” (National Register of Excellences) by the Ministry of Education according to the provision of the appropriate Ministerial Decree.

Qualified schools are admitted to participate in the team phase, which starts on 27 January 2026. The term of this phase is scheduled for 19 February 2026. Also for this edition, the Italian Statistics Olympics are the national phase of the European Statistics Competition (ESC 2026). The Olympics winners (team phase) are admitted to the European competition organized by Eurostat in collaboration with the National Statistical Institutes (here the European rules).

For information: olimpiadi-statistica@istat.it

Tutorial

Guide to the web platform for the Italian Statistics Olympics 2026

This video offers a practical and detailed overview of how to access the tests on the dedicated platform

• Watch the video on YouTube (Italian only) 01:39 minutes

Launch video

Launch video for the European Statistics Competition 2026

Every year, more than 20,000 students from all over Europe form teams to compete in the analysis and creative presentation of statistics

• Watch the video on YouTube 01:02 minutes