Research Methods - Official Statistics and Sampling.

Official Statistics are secondary data. They are typically collected by governments and organisations. They are quantitative.

Advantages:

They are reliable and generaliseable. They can be used to make comparisons, for example, across countries. They can show trends and patterns. They save time and money. They are large scale, giving a representative sample.

Disadvantages:

Small details are left out. If the government has no use for the information, then it won't exist. Government definitions can differ from sociological definitions, so the scale of the problem can differ. Statistics may not…