The Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (formerly the Asian Statistical Institute) was established in May 1970 as a centre for statistical training for the developing countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

In 1995, the Institute was given the status of a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with the establishment of a Governing Board which reviews the operations and considers and adopts the annual and long-term programmes of work of the Institute. The Board consisted of a representative nominated by the host country and eight representatives nominated by other members and associate members of ESCAP elected by the Commission. In addition to the host country, Japan, the current elected members of the Governing Council includes: China, India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Republic of Korea and Thailand.

The Institute aims to strengthen the capability of the developing countries of the region to collect, analyze and disseminate statistics as well as to produce timely and high-quality statistics that can be utilized for economic and social development planning, and to assist those developing countries in establishing or strengthening their statistical training capability and other related activities.

Its Statute has been revised and adopted at the Sixty-first session of UNESCAP, 12 - 18 May 2005.

The programmes of the Institute are carried out through: offer of fellowships for general courses, advanced courses and training workshops; conduct of country courses and the preparation of training course design and materials.

As the host, the Government of Japan, in addition to its cash contributions, provides in-kind contributions including administrative and infra structural support to the Institute from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and fellowships for Tokyo Metropolitan Area based courses through the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA). Fellowships are provided annually for the Group Training Course in Modules on Fundamental Official Statistics, the Group Training Course in Application of Information and Communications Technology to Production and Dissemination of Official Statistics, the Group Training Course in Analysis, Interpretation and Dissemination of Official Statistics and Area Focused Training Course in Collection and Analysis of Official Statistics for Central Asian Countries. The Course/Workshop on Sample Design for Household and Establishment Surveys is being conducted outside of Japan in collaboration with national statistical offices and related agencies.

The Institute also conducts an outreach programme. The programme consists of: country courses and advanced courses, sub regional workshops and seminars to improve statistics on emerging policy related subjects.

In addition to a gradual restructuring of its Tokyo Metropolitan Area based courses, with emphasis on flexibility to respond to the changing demands and needs of the region and to provide complementarities to the outreach activities, the Institute is also strengthening and developing partnerships with: individual member countries for collaborating with their statistical training institutions and statistical training units within governments and with other national institutions; and with international organizations, regional and sub regional organizations for collaborative arrangements.

With assistance from UNDP, the Institute plans to develop a range of new partnerships with countries aimed at strengthening their statistical systems to generate the various demands for statistics and indicators for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and assisting in the annual production of MDG reports.