Types of government data Data type Examples Pros Cons Administrative records Created when government agencies and institutions interact with the public. They can also include transactional data on service providers and finances. Vital statistics on populations, like death and birth rates; employment and job seeker statistics. Beneficiaries of social policies and services. Vendor contracts and bookkeeping. Where administrative records are frequently updated, it can be a simple, trackable, quantitative resource that can improve transparency and help root out corruption. Only recorded for people who use a particular public services, so coverage is not always reliable. For example, crime statistics may underrepresent sexual assault, which is extremely underreported. Statistical surveys Also called a sample survey, statistical surveys only collect data from a subset of the population, with the goal of drawing inferences for the entire population. Demographic health surveys, labor force surveys, household income and expenditure surveys. Surveys can be a costeffective way for governments to collect information where data from administrative sources are not available. Selection bias may lead to the sample surveyed not being representative of overall population. Censuses Catalogue of all members of a country or territory. Countries usually conduct censuses of population, housing, agriculture and industrial establishments. Censuses provide baseline data on key characteristics of the population and on variables that do not change rapidly. A population census is usually conducted at ten-year intervals because of the complexity and cost of the operation. Assessing the reliability of government data Government data is not always accurate. It is not uncommon for governmental and nongovernmental databases to contain conflicting information. Differing methods of data collection, analysis and computation are leading causes of such conflicts. Concept Definition Potential issues Validity Data must reflect what it is trying to measure (e.g. the fulfilment of a right) as closely and as accurately as possible. Most secondary data is collected for uses other than human rights monitoring and so must be repurposed. This reinterpretation can be challenging. Reliability Refers to the consistency or dependability of the data. In other words, data collected multiple times in the same way should deliver similar results. Ambiguities or biases in the way data is collected (e.g. how survey questions are framed or how a population is sampled) might make data unreliable. Impartiality Data must be collected in a way that respects scientific independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner. A national statistical office that is not independent may “spin” numbers so that a situation appears better than it is. 41