For the past three years, Colombia experienced a significant change in the production of official statistics, leading to a situation in which an important tradition in the reliability and seriousness of official data has given way to mistrust and uncertainty. Complete changes in methodology, the break in continuity of historical series, the lack of transparency over the collection process and the direct access to data bases, on top of the correction of data along the way have been a constant in the midst of important transformations of the country in terms of displacement and migration of large groups of population, the country side modifies its labor structure and the conditions of poverty and extreme poverty persist. This paper deals with the development of the General Census of Population and Housing 2005, as an emblematic example of what is going on in the production of official data. The role of academia and the press in this process will be analyzed.