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Part 4 of four
The number is made in somebody’s front room
Behind every international estimate is a sampling frame, a questionnaire and an enumerator at a door. Every property of the number starts there.
4 pieces in this part
- The number is made in somebody’s front roomBehind a headline poverty figure is an enumerator at a door with a questionnaire, and every property of the number starts there.Read →
- The offices that publish itNational statistical offices, not international agencies, produce most of the underlying data — and their capacity varies enormously.Read →
- Modelled against measuredWhere no survey exists the figure is estimated, and published series rarely make that distinction visible.Read →
- The revisionRebasing national accounts can move a country’s headline figures by a large fraction overnight, without anything real changing.Read →
The other parts