Interpreting Official Statistics examines the official statistics produced about the current state of British society. It documents some of the ways in which information has been suppressed, manipulated and misinterpreted since 1979. This invaluable guide is designed to help students know what figures are available, and to discover when and how politicians are misusing statistics.
Data sets covered include:
* Households below average income
* Administrative and survey methods of unemployment and crime
* Population census data on ethnicity
* Data sources on women and work
* Data on the relationship between class and health, and safety at work
* New data sources on disability
* Labour Force Survey.

Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. The Legacy of Rayner Ruth Levitas 2. The Struggle for Independent Statistics on Poverty Peter Townsend 3. Fiddling while Britain Burns: The 'Measurement of Unemployment' Ruth Levitas 4. Social Class: Official, Sociological and Marxist Theo Nichols 5. Health for All? Will Guy 6. Problems in Monitoring the Safety Performance in British Manufacturing at the end of the Twentieth Century Theo Nichols 7. Figuring out Working Women Jackie West 8. Counting Ethnicity: Social Groups and Official Categories Steve Fenton 9. Disabled by Numbers Paul Abberley 10. The Case of the Missing Crimes Robert Reiner