The NPSO is organising an online lecture afternoon on Synthetic data, to address the philosophy and practicalities surrounding this type of data. Synthetic data has taken off in recent years as a solution to the limitations of using micro-data. By creating artificial respondents supplemented by survey data through modelling, answers can never be traced back to individual patterns. And non-respondents can also be properly represented in research this way. Is synthetic data becoming the new data standard?