Social statistics is a scientific discipline that uses quantitative methods to study society, understood as the different ways in which individuals relate to one another.
Filomena Maggino
A discipline, not just an application
“Statistics and society” can mean three different things. Social statistics in the plural are data, mostly produced by official statistics, that describe the social condition of a country or community. Statistics applied to the social sciences is the use of statistical methods in sociology, economics, psychology or political science. Social statistics as a discipline has its own object of study, society, and its own theoretical and methodological framework.
The elements of the discipline
Complexity as a paradigm
Social phenomena are complex systems: many interconnected elements, non-linear relationships, properties that emerge from the whole rather than from its parts. Social statistics adopts complexity as its lens, observing reality from several points of view.
Themes
Poverty, inequality, gender disparities, deprivation, social exclusion and cohesion, quality of life and of society, territorial differences, social sustainability. Some themes, such as measuring and monitoring well-being, draw on the discipline’s entire methodological apparatus and directly inform public decisions. A specific area concerns the use of statistics in society itself: how it is communicated, how it is used in political debate, data journalism. By tradition, themes belonging to the economic system and to demographic dynamics are left to other disciplines, although they interact closely with the social system.
Levels of observation
A theme can be observed at the micro level (individuals, events) or at the macro level (groups, territories, institutions, services). Some aspects exist only at the macro level; others are obtained by aggregating individual observations, such as poverty levels by territory or social group. When the unit of observation is the individual, both objective and subjective dimensions can be measured.
Domains of observation
Themes are studied within segments of social life: welfare, the health system, schools and universities, living and working conditions, justice, security, communication and the media, research. Social statistics therefore works alongside economics, sociology, psychology, urban studies and other disciplines, providing their quantitative complement and adopting their concepts.
Measurement
Observing and measuring social phenomena is a structural part of the discipline: building, analysing and synthesising indicators; methods for collecting and analysing subjective data; survey methodology (questionnaires, survey design, sampling). Every measure comes with an analysis of error: observation error, linked to the accuracy and precision of instruments, and non-observation error, linked to the statistical and social representativeness of samples.
Data and data quality
Data may come from existing, structured sources such as official statistics; from existing but unstructured sources such as big data; or be collected directly through surveys and polls. In every case their quality is assessed: methodological soundness, integrity, maintenance, accessibility.
Perspectives of study
- Forecasts, predictions and projections, including the analysis of uncertainty and concepts such as risk, vulnerability, fragility and resilience.
- Analysis of change: stability and transformation of social phenomena, and the possibility of acting on them.
- Evaluation: understanding a phenomenon in order to improve a process and support decisions.
Aims of data analysis
In social statistics, analysing data does not mean applying methods mechanically: techniques are used with close attention to the data and to the reality they describe. The main aims are the study of causation and causality, classification, dimensionality, synthesis, inference and the analysis of big data.
Specialist fields
Crossing themes and methods has given rise to distinct fields, each with its own specialisations. Among them, without claiming completeness:
- Quantitative text analysis
- Social epidemiology
- Sample surveys and opinion polls
- Indicators: construction, analysis and synthesis
- Evaluation methods and techniques
- Statistical methods for service planning and evaluation
- Survey methodology
- Statistical models of the labour market
- Statistical models of political behaviour
- Statistical models for analysing and evaluating educational processes
- Collection and statistical analysis of subjective data
- Collection and quality of social and health data
- Science mapping and quantitative analysis of the scientific literature
- Statistics applied to social research
- Tourism statistics
- Statistics and decision-making
- Educational statistics
- Judicial statistics
- Statistics for social research
- Statistics for human resources
- Psychometric statistics
- Health statistics
The field
In Italy, social statistics is identified by the academic field STAT-03/B, within the area of statistical sciences.