Nobody believes UK statistics
British doubts over the reliability of official statistics are greater than ever, according to a survey published by the Financial Times.
Only about 10 per cent think the figures are accurate, far below the figures recorded in an Eurobarometer survey in 2007 (32 per cent) and the ONS’s own survey the same year (36 per cent).
And while ONS found that 20 per cent of respondents believed the figures were produced without political interference, the FT survey found only 10 per cent taking that view.
The results come from a survey by Harris in mid-December, also carried out in France, Germany, US, Spain and Italy. Confidence was low in all countries, but the UK scored lowest on more measures than any other country.
Not only do most adults think the figures are inaccurate, but about 70 per cent think they are manipulated for political purposes. More than half mistrust the figures because they do not reflect their own experience.
Professor Denise Lievesley, a past president of the RSS, told the FT the figures were “really worrying”. She called for official statistics to be properly funded by Government and for statisticians to build better relations with the media and with non-expert users.
Anonymous (not verified) wrote,
Tue, 05/01/2010 - 12:45
The Eurobarometer and ONS surveys figures were probably not significantly different. This Poll for the FT must have an underlying methodological difference to account for such a large discrepancy. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the details of the survey on the FT website or any explanation of why else the figures might be different. It's a shame that this sort of information isn't presented in a supposedly statistics based story.
Nigel Hawkes (not verified) wrote,
Wed, 06/01/2010 - 12:18
The link to the FT story is working, but the FT has a pay barrier which may prevent you accessing it. All it said was "Harris interviewed 1,000 people in each country in mid-December". I don't think that tells us much about why the figures are different, but I'm happy to supply at least as much information as the FT did.
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