Official Statistics

• Quantitative data


  Data gathered by official body such as the government
• Hard statistics


  • Cannot be manipulated or changed
• Soft statistics


  • Can be manipulated
• Dark figure


  The data that goes unrecorded in statistics
• Types of data


  • primary
  • secondary
  • qualitative
  • quantitative
  • reliable
  • valid
• Durkheim: le suicide


  • Townsend and Davidson: inequalities in health
  • The census
• Quantitative data analysis


  • Can be time consuming to analyse results and requires numerical skills
  • Analysis of vast amounts of data will require appropriate software which can be expensive and difficult to access
• Ethical considerations


  • There will be no deception as there are no actual participants
  • Consent might be needed for protected data
  • Need to be careful to be sensitive with wording when publishing findings about data that shows patterns about racism, sexism, or sensitive topics such as abortion and domestic violence
• Theoretical factors


  • Hard statistics are more objective as they cannot be manipulated
  • Soft statistics are less reliable and objective as they are often manipulated
  • The government may have not gathered statistics on the particular topic you are interested in