Official statistics

Official statistics

1. Practical

   • Easy and cheap to access, usually via the internet
     • Some statistics need to be paid for on Ansestory.com because of restrictions
   • Extremely up-to-date and gives a temporary picture of society to develop patterns & trends
     • Not all researchers know how to search for the data, so they need to be computer literate
   • Large amounts of data can be obtained- Census
     • May take longer to search through data to find specific ones
   • Collected for administration purposes rather than researchers purpose

2. Ethical

   • Don't invade privacy as you are not personally asking for the data
     • Some may not be aware that the information will be widely published
   • Voluntarily participated in the survey, consent not required
     • Consent should be required when wanting to use the research in the investigation
   • Data obtained is legally checked and safe to be publsihed
     • Open to manipulation, could negatively portray sample
   • Macro approach to cover a large amount of different people, no discrimination
     • Deception may occur, and single out responses to use against them

3. Theoretical

   • Positivists see official stats as hard reliable facts
     • Collected in standardised and systematic fashion
     • Interpretivists may see this as not useful to back up hypothesis
   • Durkhelm sees it as a valuable source as back up evidence
     • Obtained through surveys of close ended questions, so answers are not based on opinion which questions validity
   • Carried out on large scale- generalisations. Operationalize better