Public Confidence in Official Statistics in the UK: Characteristics of Respondents and Changes Over Time

Abstract

The survey climate is a complex phenomenon and determines the amount of efforts which are needed to implement surveys in efficient way and to obtain high quality data. In this paper we assess specific aspects of survey climate in the UK, with reference to public confidence in Official Statistics (OS): general confidence in OS, trust in the statistics produced specifically by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and confidence that respondents’ data would be kept confidential. We identify charactersitics of respondents with lower confidence in OS in the UK in 2021 and then investigate change in the confidence in OS over time between 2014 and 2021.  To address the research questions, we use data collected in the UK about public confidence in OS in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021 and employ binary logistic regression models.  The results suggest that public confidence in Official Statistics in the UK has increased over time between 2014 and 2021. It seems that covid-19 pandemic period associated with higher exposure of the public to OS may have had a positive impact on public confidence in OS in the UK.  Additionally, we find that those who are older and less educated are more likely to have negative views about official statistics in general, lower level of trust specifically in the statistics produced by the ONS, and lower level of confidence that their data would be kept confidential.  For some outcomes the participation in census is important and those respondents who took part in census are more likely to express more positive attitudes towards the outcomes of interest.  The level of awareness about the ONS is another significant factor for all three key outcomes and the probability of having more negative attitudes is associated with lower awareness about the ONS.