Official Statistics

Question 1

Official Statistics

Answer 1

Quantitative data collected by government or official agencies.

Examples: births, deaths, marriages/civil partnerships, unemployment, education results, crime figures.

Question 2

Advantages

Answer 2

Useful for evaluating social policy.

Often the only data available for a topic.

Cheap, easy to collect, objective, and reliable.

Covers long time spans and large populations → representative and generalisable.

Allows before-and-after comparisons (e.g., trends in marriage, infant mortality, academic attainment).

Helps link datasets (e.g., poverty and educational attainment).

Publicly available → few ethical issues

Question 3

Disadvantages

Answer 3

Collected for administrative/policy purposes, not research → classification may not fit sociological needs.

May be manipulated by the state to look favorable.

Can be inaccurate or incomplete → incomplete picture.

Interpretivists: invalid → reflect social constructions and government priorities, not “truth”.