Winners of the Data Smackdown 2025/2026
We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s Data Smackdown competition. Following a thorough evaluation process by our jurors, teams were assessed based on the quality of their output presentation, depth of information analysis, and strength of their concluding remarks. The selected winners demonstrated exceptional skills across all criteria.
Category A: Post Secondary Winners
1st
VSTATS
G.F. Abela Junior College
- Viktoriia Bobrovska
- Sofiia Zhytnik
2nd
DILAN_LOVE
St Aloysius College
- Ron Galea
- Andrea Cachia
- Isaac Abela
3rd
TWOALPHA
St Aloysius College
- Benjamin Spiteri
Category B: Secondary Winners
1st
SAC2STATS
St Aloysius College Secondary
- John Mifsud Depasquale
- Julian Agius Scicluna
- Beppe Luigi Portanier
2nd
3RDTHEOREM
St Monica School
- Allyx Enya Haber
- Eliza Muscat
- Julia Piccinino
3rd
TURING
St Joseph School
- Andrea Gauci
- Giorgia Carol Gruttadauria
Overview of the Data Smackdown
Malta participated for the first time in the European Statistics Competition (ESC) during 2024. This event is coordinated by Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, with the primary objective of nurturing students’ curiosity and fascination for the field of statistics. The ESC is tailored for students in secondary and higher secondary education, aged 14-18 years, encouraging them to compete by solving statistical challenges, seeking out data, and crafting analytical solutions. Students will be split into two categories; Category A for those in higher secondary education aged 16-18 years and Category B for those in secondary education aged 14-16 years.
Beginning at the national level and subsequently progressing to the European stage, this competition encourages participating teams to collaborate and assess their theoretical knowledge. It also prompts them to develop an appreciation for data generated by official statistical sources, all while gaining a deeper understanding of the societal significance of statistics.
This competition takes place in two phases:
- The national phase: for Malta this is organised by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and called Data Smackdown. Winners of this national competition will secure the opportunity to represent Malta in the European Statistics Competition of 2026, competing alongside winners from other National Statistics Institutes across Europe.
- The European phase: organised by Eurostat: the two best teams of the two age categories will be able to participate in the European phase.
The general objectives of the European Statistics Competition are:
- To promote curiosity and interest in statistics among students.
- To encourage teachers to use new materials for teaching statistics by promoting the use of real data and search for applications of acquired statistical knowledge.
- To show the role of statistics to students and teachers in various aspects of society, making it known as a university study.
- To promote teamwork and collaboration to achieve common goals.
Participation in the Data Smackdown will be divided into two categories:
- Category A, encompassing students in the first and second years of higher secondary born in years 2008-2010 (approximately 16-18 years old), and
- Category B, welcoming secondary school students born in years 2010-2012 (approximately 14-16 years old).
Students need to be studying at any officially recognized educational centre of Malta. Students will participate in teams of one to three pupils. All students of the team should belong to the same school and category. Each team should have a teacher from their centre acting as the tutor of the team, who will supervise their work.
There is no limitation on the number of participants / teams from the same centre nor on teams supervised by the same tutor.
Students are not allowed to participate in more than one team.
Participants in the Data Smackdown competition will take two eliminatory tests. Only those who pass both tests will be among the finalists of the Competition.
The first test will be done through a web form consisting of three components with closed questions. Those questions will have four possible answers of which only one will be the correct option.
The second test will consist of a presentation made in pdf format and needs to be sent in the way established hereinafter.
It will not be necessary to travel anywhere to take any of the two tests.
First test:
The first test will consist of three components:
a. Basic knowledge test
The goal is to answer 10 questions on understanding of basic statistical concepts, interpretation of graphs, basic probability etc.
A collection of questions with different level of difficulty will be prepared for each category.
b. Use of official statistical data sources test
The goal is to answer 10 questions on various statistical data. This will require navigation through the National Statistics Office’s website.
c. Interpretation of statistical reports test
The goal is to answer 10 questions about the Eurostat publication: Housing in Europe – 2023 edition. This publication will be available in English.
Second test:
Statistical research output
In this assignment, the teams will have to prepare a news release from the exploitation of a dataset in Excel which will be facilitated by the NSO. The dataset will be comprehensive and will allow exploration of different facets of information at the choice of participants.
The results of the assignment will be presented in a PDF document that includes the following sections:
- Title.
- Headline.
- A commentary explaining the results derived from the analysis of the dataset.
- Tables, graphs and any other accompanying visuals.
- Conclusion.
- Methodology section: tools used, techniques of information analysis, etc.
An initial page is to be included in the news release indicating the name of the team, school, locality, and the category in which the team is participating. The PDF document for the second assignment should not exceed 8 pages in all (including the initial page with information on the team). Also, it should feature a maximum of 4 charts and not more than 4 tables. Such pdf will be named with the exact name of the team, and will be uploaded on the platform within the deadline.
The jury will only evaluate the printable parts of the pdf file. Elements like links to external contents, embedded videos and the like will not be considered as a part of the assignment and therefore will not count for the evaluation.
The analysis will be limited to the specific dataset; no assignment will be accepted if analysis and exploitation of different databases are carried out nor those in which there have been an addition of complementary information. There are no restrictions on the software used for the exploitation of the database.
First Assignment
Each of the three components of the first test will be evaluated in terms of success and failure, taking into account that a correct answer carries a point, an incorrect answer subtracts 0.33 points and a question without answer carries no points. The maximum grade for each of the three tests will be 10 points.
The result of the first assignment will be obtained by calculating the arithmetic mean, rounded to one decimal place, of the scores obtained in each of the three tests, and multiplying the result by 10, so that the final score for this assignment will be of 100 points maximum. The ranking of all participating teams will be determined in this way. At least a half of the teams will be eliminated after the first assignment.
The points obtained in the first assignment will be used to qualify teams for the second assignment. In addition, the score in the first assignment will be included in the calculation of the final grade with a weight of 25%.
The evaluation of the three components and the calculation of the final score for the first test will be automatically done by a program.
Those teams who pass the first test will receive a diploma.
Second Assignment
The following aspects will be taken into account when evaluating the pdf file of the second test:
- Output presentation (20%)
- Output is structured in well differentiated parts
- Presentation is clear and can be easily read
- There are references to sources / bibliography
- Objectives (20%)
- The output has a clear objective
- There are well defined secondary objectives
- The interest in studying the proposed objectives is argued
- Analysed data are appropriate to study the settled objectives
- Information analysis (40%)
- There is good balance among tables, graphs and central tendency indicators
- Tables and graphs have comments so that the most relevant information is highlighted
- Graphs are appropriate and help to reach, and support, the conclusion
- Reasons to use each statistical indicator are explained
- Performed analysis is in concordance with the educational level of the team
- Conclusions (20%)
- There is one conclusion per objective and a general conclusion as well
- There are warnings about the limitation of the conclusions of the analysis (should these limitations exist)
The jury will select five best assignments in each category and evaluate them with up to 100 points. The score for the 2nd assignment will be included in the calculation of the final grade with a weight of 75%.
Final Score
The final score for the two assignments for each category will be obtained as the weighted average, with a maximum of three decimal places, of the scores obtained in the first and second assignments, by the following formula:
Final score = 0.25 * 1st test score + 0.75 * 2nd test score.
The winning team is the one that obtains the highest final score. The other two teams from each category will be considered finalists of their respective categories.
Jury
The jury for the national phase will consist of four people, three from the NSO and one from the University of Malta.
The jury’s decision is final.
Communication of the jury’s decision and awards ceremony
The decision of the jury will be announced to the winner and finalists by e-mail and it will be published at https://nso.gov.mt on the date indicated by the NSO. An award giving ceremony will be held whereby the participating schools, the tutors of the winning team and the winning teams will be awarded the prizes.
Publication of presentations
The winning presentations of the second test would be announced on the NSO website, indicating the names of the teams, the school they come from and their category. The participants will accept these rules and allow the publication of their works. All materials presented at the national phase of the competition will be the property of, and therefore retained by, the National Statistics Office of Malta. These will not be returned to the students.
European phase of the European Statistics Competition 2026
The winning team and the finalists with the highest grade of each category will be eligible to participate in the European phase of the European Statistics Competition. The organisation of the national phase will contact the teams in due time to inform them about the European phase.
For this purpose, the jury will prepare a list with at most three teams per category sorted by the highest grade obtained in the national phase. The first team in the list will be the winner, followed by the two finalists. In case the proposed teams refuse to participate in the European phase, the jury will contact the following team of the aforementioned list.
Further information and applicable rules for the European phase of the European Statistics Competition may be found on the dedicated website.
The topic of the video will be announced later.
Reservation of rights
The National Statistics Office reserves the right to change the terms and conditions of the national phase of the ESC, especially the dates announced in the calendar, or even its possible cancellation, whenever there is justified cause. These modifications would be made public at https://nso.gov.mt
Acceptance of the rules of the national phase of the ESC
Awards
The winning teams of the Data Smackdown, one from the Category A and one from the Category B, will receive the following prizes:
- For all participating schools and tutors
A participation award.
- For the school of the winning team
A trophy.
- For the tutors of the winning teams
Gift vouchers will be awarded as follows: €250 for first place, €150 for second place, and €75 for third place.
In case of having two winning teams with the same tutor, the latter will only receive one award.
- For each student of the winning team
A trophy and promotional material.
Gift vouchers will be awarded as follows: €250 for first place, €150 for second place, and €75 for third place.
Registration
Tutors of teams wishing to participate in the NSO Data Smackdown Competition must register the teams online by clicking the “Register Now!” Button. The registration must include all the information requested in the form.
Participants can send their questions by email to [email protected].
Registration deadline: 11 January 2026
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission.
Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
