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A basic set of Social Statistics for the ESCAP region in 2020
By Susan Linacre
1. Scope of Social Statistics
The use of the term social statistics is open to some ambiguity as to what is covered and what is not.
The 2008 Expert Group Meeting on the Scope and Content of Social Statistics 1 concluded that the content of social statistics would change across countries and over time as policy concerns and national priorities changed, but that social statistics should be taken to include all areas of statistics relating to people and their living conditions.
A suggested scope for the TAG on Social Statistics is therefore to use the conclusions of the 2008 Expert Group described above. This means there will be some overlap between the social, economic and environmental statistics. For example employment is important in economic statistics, employment outcomes for population groups, extent of precarious employment etc are areas of social concern. Gender statistics and statistics about the empowerment of women, are social statistics, and information on living conditions, such as access to safe water supply, are social statistics.
Given this overlap, it will be important to recognise the need for co-ordination of standards in any areas of overlap between social and economic statistics and social and environmental statistics, building on already developed concepts and measures.
2. A Framework for Social Statistics:
To determine a basic set of social statistics, one approach would be to set up a social statistics framework and try to fill in the most important elements in each part. A framework provides an agreed way of thinking about an area of interest, and is therefore helpful in promoting standards. It maps the conceptual terrain, shows the relationships, helps identify gaps, and classifies the counting units for consistent counting. The System of National Accounts provides such a framework for economic statistics.
Many UN forums have discussed how a conceptual framework for social statistics might be built. The notion of a single framework that covers all domains of social statistics in such a way that any social transaction could be described in one, and only one part of the framework, and with the potential to aggregate such transactions, across domains as for economic statistics, seems intractable given the nature of social conditions. It is also probably not needed.
A simpler approach is to bring together the conceptual frameworks already developed within individual social domains, into one place.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics framework is one form of this simpler approach, and consists of :
Defining the aspects of life that are seen as important in contributing to wellbeing. These define the
areas of social concern to governments and the community (health, education, employment etc),
(^1) The meeting was organized by the Statistics Division of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
in New York, 9 ‐ 12 September 2008. More information about the meeting is available from:
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/egm/NewYork_8‐12Sep.2008/list_of_docs.htm
Identifying key social issues in each area of interest by asking questions such as: what is the current
status of wellbeing in this area, and how is it changing over time? How is it distributed between sub groups in the population and are particular groups disadvantaged? What factors affect wellbeing in that area and are the systems and infrastructure that administer services in this area effective and efficient? How well is government policy translating into improved wellbeing in this area,
Nominating the particular population groups of concern in each area ( women, aged people, low
income groups, particular ethnic groups etc),
Defining the transactions or activities that are of interest in each area, and determining agreed
counting units to be used in counting the transactions. (For example transactions or activities might be births, deaths, having a job of a particular sort, earning an income, or being victim of a crime, while units might be individuals, families, households, or communities )
Social issues of concern will cross domains, as will the nature of transactions within each area, but wherever possible, consistent approaches to defining populations of concern, counting units and definitions of items used in more than one domain, should be kept consistent to facilitate measurement of cross cutting issues.
The above approach takes a user perspective in defining the framework, in that it focuses on areas of social concern, and issues of social concern within these areas, as well as population groups of particular interest.
A more targeted approach to defining a set of social statistics is by identifying priority areas for government action to improve wellbeing, and determine social statistics in terms of what is needed to monitor progress in relation to this action. This provides a very focussed approach to defining social statistics. It has the potential drawback of being very aligned to current government priorities, and might miss less visible issues, or emerging issues. It also relies on government priorities being the same across countries. The Millenium Development Goals, provide such a set of targets with underpinning social indicators, and implied sets of social statistics.
A pragmatic approach for this TAG on Social Statistics may be to agree on a set of domains that any basic set of social statistics for 2020 should cover. Within each of these domains, it might be useful to discuss the key social issues that are common across the region, and any key population groups, and the implied set of basic social statistics that might be needed, taking into account already determined policy targets based on country or international priorities.
- An illustrative Set of Basic Social Statistics
The table below is provided as a discussion starter. A set of domains is provided, together with a set of indicators based on a small number of cross country target based approaches (particularly MDGs andthe UN Minimum National Social Data Set of 15 indicators). The domains are very similar to those used in the System of Social and Demographic Statistics (SSDS) (ca 1974) and the Australian Measuring Wellbeing Framework (2001)
Some illustrative examples of issues that might be seen as issues of cross country social concern are given in the first column, the second column gives a set of indicators drawn from the MDGs (these are given against the relevant goal and in bold type) and other sets of indicators, the third column gives the underpinning social statistics that would be required for column 2 indicators, and the fourth column gives a hypothetical list of basic social statistics for 2020.
Key data sources that might be used to provide the required data, are listed in the final column.
The table is very incomplete, and meant only to provoke discussion. It is not a first draft of the proposed basic set of social statistics.
Goal 5A.
maternal deaths per
100,000 live births
Proportion of
deliveries attended by skilled health professional
Goal 5B
contraceptive
prevalence rate
adolescent birth rate
antenatal care
coverage (at least 1 visit and at least 4 visits)
unmet need for family
planning
Goal 6A
HIV prevalence
amongst 15 -
condom use at last
high risk sex
%population aged 15-
24 with comphrehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
Goal 6B
% population with
advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs Goal 6C
Incidence and rates of
death associated with malaria
%children<5 sleeping
under insecticide treated nets
%children<5 with fever
who are treated with appropriate anti- malarial drugs
incidence, prevalence
and death rates associated with tuberculosis
% of tuberculosis
cases detected and cured under directly
Number of pregnancies where 1 -3 and 4 or more visits to a health care professional occurred.
Number of women aged 15 -49 with unmet need for family planning.
Number of HIV registrations 14 -
Number using condom at last high risk sex
Number aged 15- with comphrehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
gender, urban and rural
Disability statistics by type of limitation, by gender, urban and rural.
Affordable access to medication
Affordable access to care
type information such as use of contraceptive, attendance by skilled health professionals, knowledge of HIV/AIDS etc
Household surveys for risk factors, self assessed health, disability and limitations, access to care etc.
observed short course treatment
Goal 8E
% population with
access to affordable essential drugs on a sustainable basis
Injury statistics (fatal and non fatal)
Income
and expenditure
Issues:
poverty
lack of income
security
Goal 1A
%population living on
less than $1.00 (PPP) per day
Poverty gap ratio
share of poorest
quintile in national consumption Goal 1B
growth rate of GDP per
peron employed (per capita)
% employed people
living below $1 (PPP) per day (by gender, by urban rural)
GDP per capita
Household income per capita
Monetary value of basket of food needed for minimum nutritional requirements
household income distribution (level and distribution) household income for individuals by whether employed, by gender and by urban/rural
household income distribution for an agreed set of population groups (eg by family type, by member with a disability, by whether there is an employed member of the household, by rural/urban on 5 yearly basis, to set definitions.
main source of income for agreed set of population groups
security of income
Indicators of financial hardship eg ability to raise given amount of money in an emergency.
employment
Issues:
good quality
employment
security of
employment
barriers to
employment
gender equity
in employment
Goal 1B.
employment to
population ratio by gender and formal/ informal sector where possible
proportion of total
employment made up of own account and contributing family workers (vulnerable employment) (by gender by urban rural)
Goal 3
share of women in
wage employment in
number by labour force status by gender by urban rural
number employed by type of employment (own account etc) by gender and urban/ rural
number employed by broad industry (agriculture/ non agriculture) by gender
Labour force status by gender by urban/rural
Barriers to participation in the labour force by gender
hours worked by gender
length of job tenure by gender by urban/rural
industry and occupation of employment
long term unemployment rate by age and gender underemployment rate by age and gender
Household surveys
sanitation, and overcrowding ie 3 or more persons per room, and dwelling made of non-durable material
number of people per room excluding kitchen and bathroom
measure of security of tenure
number of people by age
number of people with security of tenure of their home
more than x kms from child health services, % of households with children under 5 living more than x kms away from a primary and y kms away from a secondary school)
information and communication
Issues:
social
isolation
distribution of
access to new technology
Goal 8F
Telephone lines per 100
inhabitants
cellular subscriptions per
100 inhabitants
Internet users per 100
inhabitants
% of the households with a telephone line
number of cellular subscriptions
number of people with access to the internet for work and nonwork based activities
number of people with access to telephone line by age and gender number of people with access to a mobile phone by age and gender number of households with internet connection to the household
Household surveys
crime and justice
Issues:
level and type
of crime
geographic
distribution of crime
characteristics
of prisoners
effectiveness
of police and courts/ prisons
domestic
violence
Victims of personal crime by gender, by income?
offences by type and region convictions by offender characteristics prison statistics victim statistics (personal crime and theft/ household breakins)
administrative records: police, courts, prisons
household surveys on crime victimisation
family and community, including community cohesion
Issues:
family sources
of support
caring
social
isolation eg through mental health,
Goal 3.
proportion of seats
held by women in national parliament
Goal 6A
Ratio of school
attendance of orphans to school attendance on non orphans aged 10-14 years
number of seats in national parliament number of women in national parliament
Number of orphans due to AIDS, 10- and number not attending school
Number of non orphans aged 10- not attending school
number of households by family type (single person, couple only, couple with dependent children, single parent with dependent children etc) by age structure by household income
female representation in parliament
voter turnout suicide rate volunteer rate
census and household surveys
cause of death
Marriages and divorces statistics may be relevant.
frail aged, poverty
impact of
family breakdown on children
children without an employed parent measures of social isolation barriers to participation in community activities culture and leisure
Issues:
time for, and
access to cultural and leisure activities
maintenance
of cultural identity for snaller ethnic groups
language spoken, cultural participation
participation in leisure activities
general Goal 8A
proportion of aid to
basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water and sanitation)
populatoins: women, aged, indigenous, rural themes: ageing, obesity, child poverty, human transactions, social exclusion, violence against women, migration, victimisation
Population subgroups of particular interest
children (health, education, family and community, culture and leisure), youth (education, work, crime and justice), people with disabilities (health, education, work, income, family and community, housing) etc
Standards and related developments
vitals (HMN MoVE-IT) Cause of death, disability, occupation, etc
Additional Issues for possible discussion:
It is one thing to decide that an item should be included in a basic set of social statistics. There are additional issues of frequency, and quality which should also be addressed in relation to each item.
