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- Official statistics result from the collection and processing of data into statistical information by a government institution or international organization. They are then disseminated to help users develop their knowledge about a particular topic or geographical area, make comparisons between countries or understand changes over time.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_statistics
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Jul 10, 2024 · We produce statistics that help us understand the UK's economy and society, and the population of England and Wales. This includes statistics about: business, industry and trade. inflation and...
Official statistics are statistics produced by Crown bodies and other organisations listed within an Official Statistics Order, on behalf of the UK government or devolved administrations....
- UK Statistics Authority
- Theoretical Factors
- Practical Factors
- Ethical Factors
Theoretical advantages
Official Statistics make it very easy to get an overview of social life in Britainby, for example, clicking on the ‘UK snapshot’ or ‘focus on’ links on the ONS homepage. Official statistics enable us to make comparisons between social groups and regions. The UK National Censusis a good example of this. They enable us to make historical comparisonsover time because they often go back a long way – The British Crime Survey goes back to 1982 for example, League Tables go back until 1988 and and t...
Theoretical Disadvantages
Some Official Statistics lack validity. Crime statistics are a good example of this – certain crimes are notorious for being under-reported to the police – such as Rape and Domestic Violence for example. The way that some social trends are measured changes over time– sometimes making historical comparisons difficult. For example, they way the Police Recorded Crimes changed twice in 2000s. Official statistics may also lack validity because they are collected by the state and massaged to make t...
Practical advantages
Many official statistics are freely available to researchers and the general public. This is a distinct advantage over ‘privately collected data’ which is collected by companies – Facebook and Amazon, for example, have a lot of data on individuals, but they are not going to share it for free! Official Statistics are more likely to shared with the public because they are paid for by taxes. They are generally easy to access and to navigate – by using the Office for National Statics(ONS) web sit...
Practical Disadvantages
Even though these statistics are free, they are far from cheap to collect. The ONS employs 4000 people merely to collate this data. On top of this, think of the time it takes other government officials to collect data. The Census in 2011 cost hundreds of million pounds to produce. Official Statistics are collected for administrative purposes rather than for research purposes. Thus the data which exists and the categories and indicators used might not fit a researcher’s specific research purpo...
Ethical Advantages
Official Statistics are collected in the ‘national interest’ and so avoid the biases of private research, which would only collect data which would be of interest to the particular researcher, or data which is is profitable. Official Statistics enable us to check up on the performance of public bodies such as the police and schools, making sure tax payers’ money is spent efficiently.
Ethical Disadvantages
The collection of some statistics can have harmful effects. The introduction of school league tables and the requirement that schools publish there results has led to more teaching the test, a decline in creativity in education, and education generally being much more stressful for both pupils and teachers. The collection of statistics might really be about surveillance and control – The collection of data on school performance for example enables control of teachers while the collection of d...
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Secondary Qualitative Data Analysis in Sociology Positivism, Sociology and Social Research Family Trends in the UK (2016)– outlines some official statistics on families Is the UK really the 18th most gender equal country in the world?(looks at the problems of official statistics on gender equality)
Official statistics make information on economic and social development accessible to the public, allowing the impact of government policies to be assessed, thus improving accountability.
- Relevance, impartiality and equal access. Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation.
- Professional standards and ethics. To retain trust in official statistics, the statistical agencies need to decide according to strictly professional considerations, including scientific principles and professional ethics, on the methods and procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of statistical data.
- Accountability and transparency. To facilitate a correct interpretation of the data, the statistical agencies are to present information according to scientific standards on the sources, methods and procedures of the statistics.
- Prevention of misuse. The statistical agencies are entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics.
Sep 15, 2020 · Official statistics play a central role in answering society’s most important questions. The most salient questions currently facing society concern the COVID-19 pandemic, its impacts...
Sep 25, 2019 · The Office for National Statistics is leading an international project to begin to define the true value for official statistics around the world. Ed Humpherson, Director General for...
