Official statistics

• What do official statistics refer to?

  Quantitative data collected by the government
• What areas can official statistics relate to?

  Births, deaths, crime, migration, marriage, divorce
• Why do positivists prefer official statistics?

  They produce quantitative data
• Who can produce official statistics?

  Central government, local government, agencies
• What distinguishes hard statistics from soft statistics?

  Hard statistics are objective; soft statistics are subjective
• How did the government change its method of measuring employment in the 1980s and 1990s?

  They changed their method 20 times
• What is the UK Census?

  A survey of every household every 10 years
• What are non-official statistics?

  Statistics collected by organizations other than the government
• What are the strengths of official statistics?

  • Cheap and easy to access
  • Large amounts of data available
  • Can explore changes over time
  • High reliability
  • Can isolate variables and establish cause-and-effect relationships
• What are the weaknesses of official statistics?

  • Do not explain why things happen
  • May not meet specific research needs
  • Definitions and data collection methods may vary over time
• What are the evaluation points for official statistics?

  Strengths:

  • Available on a wide variety of topics

  Weaknesses:

  • May be biased or manipulated by the government
  • Crime stats may reflect policing more than actual crime