Skip to main navigationSkip to main content
The University of Southampton
Social Statistics and DemographyPart of Economic, Social & Political Science

Official Statistics

Official Statistics are the key lens through which the performance of governments is assessed. They form an essential part of the democratic process and measure the conditions of our society and economy. It is essential that official statistics are high quality, but produced as efficiently as possible to make best use of public funds.

Working with the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

The Department of Social Statistics & Demography and the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) have worked with the ONS since 1995 on research problems in official statistics. Recent work includes investigation of methods for assessing the quality of consumer price indices (CPI) and calculating regional CPIs; estimation of discontinuities due to changing survey procedures; approaches to quality measurement for administrative data sources; design of coverage surveys and estimation methods for traditional and administrative data censuses; and use of machine learning methods for identifying unusual observations in large datasets. We also work with a range of other UK government departments.

International research in official statistics

We also engage in collaborative projects with partners around the world. The MAKSWELL project, completed in 2020 with several European partners, examined how new forms of data could be used to improve sustainability and wellbeing indicators, and promote their use in policymaking and evaluation. Southampton is also a partner in the international research infrastructure INGRID 2, which provides methodological support to researchers

Members of the department have strong links with many national statistical institutes, including Statistics Canada, Statistics Netherlands, Statistics New Zealand, Statistics Norway, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics and IBGE, Brazil. These have led to many jointly authored research publications.

Who’s related

Privacy Settings