Welcome to this Tutor2U Sociology topic video on Research Methods, looking at Official Statistics. Official Statistics are a form of quantitative data that has been compiled from other research methods such as questionnaires, opinion polls and civil service and other departmental data e.g. number of births, deaths and marriages, migration statistics, exam and so on. The purpose of these statistics is to allow the government to plan their spending for future years, so if there is an increase in the birth rate they know that they need to build more schools. These statistics are collated by the Office for National Statistics in the UK, way.
Sociologists use these statistics to back up their findings or to find areas they may want to investigate further. They are widely used across the specification in education, crime, health, work, poverty and welfare, and families and households amongst other areas. There are several advantages to using statistics. Firstly, they are easy to access and regularly updated for a range of different topics across society. With the advent of the internet, the gov.uk website hosts these updates once published and anybody can access access them, which is a great benefit to sociologists.
They provide trends over time so sociologists can see the impacts of social changes. Furthermore, they look at differences based on ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religious beliefs, which help researchers to spot inequality and diversity in contemporary society. They are also highly reliable as they are repeated often. For example, crime statistics are published quarterly as are statistics on unemployment and the economy.
Consequently, they can become a starting point for lots of sociological research, particularly in examining inequality in contemporary society. Of course there are practical issues with official statistics and time is one of those. Whilst it can be argued they are easy to access, often the sheer amounts of statistical data can take time to interpret and analyse. There is also the issue of access. While most statistics are readily available, some statistics, such as the census data, take time to compile and therefore can be out of date in the 10 years between publications.
Another access issue is that statistics are not made for sociological purposes. research and so definitions may differ from what a sociologist is looking for and therefore inaccessible. A final practical issue is operationalising variables.
Governments tend to have very finite criteria for what defines ethnic groups, social class, gender etc which may be less fluid than what sociologists experience in contemporary society. For example exam results are reported by gender but do not take into account those that identify as anything other than male or female. Ethically, official statistics are quite sound with informed consent, deception and harm unlikely.
However, they can be manipulated by governments to prove political or ideological points which means that some groups in society may be targeted or may not get the help that need. For example in healthcare, education or welfare benefits. One example of this is the measurement of poverty in the UK. If people earn less than 60% of the national median wage they are considered to be in poverty.
If the median wage of a is £25,000 a year that means that anybody going less than £15,000 will be in poverty. However if the median wage drops to say £20,000 a year that would mean those earning under £12,000 would be in poverty. So despite society getting less affluent the definition of poverty for official statistics would have less people in poverty as those earning between £12,000 and £15,000 would no longer be seen as poor.
This highlights an issue with the definition used in officials. statistics and how it might negatively impact those that need the most support. There are lots of theoretical issues with official statistics.
Firstly, validity. Interpretivists would suggest that statistics are a social construction, as it is up to those in power to decide what actions or behaviours fit definitions, and their Therefore, behaviours of different social classes may be viewed more negatively than those of the elite. Secondly, there are issues relating to dark figures within official statistics.
Actions or behaviours that are not reported or recorded anywhere through official channels. Crime and domestic violence are two common dark figures, but also in education with the off-rolling of students not impacted on schools'exam results and health with undiagnosed or untested illnesses meaning that the figures may be unrepresentative. Theoretical perspectives may also criticise the use of official statistics.
Whilst functionists would approve of the use of official statistics, Marxists and feminists would suggest that they can be manipulated to suit the needs of capitalism and the patriarchy. Some examples of official statistics. Well the census provides a lot of official statistics on household structure, beliefs, employment status, education level. Crime statistics, particularly incidents reported to and recorded by the police are updated regularly and we've seen how some social groups are overrepresented in those. and Educational League Tables and exam results which are published on an annual basis to demonstrate the levels of educational achievement and the quality of education in the UK.
That concludes this Tutor2U Sociology topic video on Research Methods, Examining Official Statistics. Thanks for watching.