Question

"Statistics, especially other people's statistics are full of pitfalls for the user unless used with caution." Elucidate this statement and mention what are the sources of the secondary data. (Please give a detailed answer and not two, three sentences.)

Answer 1

Explanation:

• Statistics, especially that other ‘people's statistics’ are ‘full of pitfalls’ for the user unless used with the caution. This is because the data isn’t collected by the person itself and it cannot be reliable.
• So the data should be analyzed thoroughly. It should be analyzed with the specific purpose of enquiry and there should be a match between the purpose and the data.
• The data must be gathered by a reliable, unbiased, and experienced person. The data should not have any discrepancies and should not be susceptible to changes.
• The ‘sources of secondary data’ include quantitative like census, housing and electoral statistics as well as qualitative like interviews, transcripts, notes etc.