John Pullinger

John James Pullinger (born 1 June 1959) was the National Statistician for the United Kingdom, serving in this role from 1 July 2014 until retiring on 30 June 2019. He was succeeded on an interim basis by Deputy National Statistician Jonathan Athow, and by Sir Ian Diamond on a permanent basis from October 2019. He became Chairman of the Electoral Commission on 1 May 2021.

Career Pullinger worked from 1980 to 1985 for the Department of Trade and Industry as a statistician. From 1985 to 1991 he worked in the Department of the Environment. From 1991 to 1992 he was Head of Pay Research at the Office of Manpower Economics. He was the President of the Royal Statistical Society between 2013 and 2014.

In 2014, Pullinger was appointed to replace Dame Jil Matheson as the UK National Statistician, Head of Governmental Statistical Service, Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority and Permanent Secretary of the ONS. He held this role until 2019. During this period he also chaired the United Nations Commission responsible for setting global measurement standards.

From 2019 to 2021 he was president of the International Association for Official Statistics. On 1 May 2021, Pullinger became Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

Education and honours Pullinger was educated at Alleyn's School, Dulwich, the University of Exeter where he gained a First Class Degree in Statistics and Geography in 1980 and Harvard Business School in 2003.

In 2016, Pullinger was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Exeter for outstanding achievements in the field of statistics and also received an honorary degree from the University of Essex the same year In 2018, he received an honorary degree from the University of the West of England. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.