The United Nations Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics was created under the UN Statistical Commission in 2014. The GWG provides strategic vision, direction and the coordination of a global programme on the use of new data sources and new technologies, which is essential for national statistical systems to remain relevant in a fast-moving data landscape. Big Data could fill gaps, make statistical operations more cost effective, enable the replacement of surveys and provide more granularities in outputs e.g. in support of the monitoring of the SDG goal of ‘leaving no one behind’. The GWG built the UN Global Platform as a collaborative environment to work together as a global statistical community and to learn together sharing knowledge, data and methods for all countries in the world.