The Bureau of Statistics, Guyana was established as a department in 1957, but prior to this, the collection and publication of statistics was decentralised and assigned to a few key government departments. In the early 1940s the then Sugar Producer’s Association was responsible for the compilation of sugar statistics, the Agriculture Department for statistics on rice and the remainder of the agricultural sector, the then Public Works Department was responsible for statistics on wages and the Customs Department was in charge of Trade Statistics.