Critically review official statistics.

Determined attempts to quantify social phenomena have allowed bureaucratic organisations to collect numerical data from increasingly diverse sources, in seemingly ever increasing volume. For many, there is a certain amount of comfort to be had from columns of figures, bar charts and percentages and we take for granted that statistical data will be derived from sources such as census forms, tax returns, and labour market surveys. From a positivistic perspective numbers provide ‘facts’, however it is important to remember that facts are themselves social constructs and these do not necessarily equate with truths. While official statistics provide one useful source of data, they should not be taken as wholly unproblematic; rather the resultant evidence needs to be seen as an artifact of the method. As such, there is equal need for critical evaluation of official statistics as there is with data collected via all other approaches.