Use of Statistical Evidence
- Places are represented in a huge range of qualitative and quantitative ways
- Quantitative data includes census data, crime rates, house prices, demographic data like population pyramids and economic data (usually found on a council website)
- Qualitative data includes songs, novels, poetry, paintings, photographs and films
- The use of statistics can help determine whether people have a positive or negative image of their living spaces
Quantitative data
- Census data about population growth and decline, age categories, ethnicity and health
- This can help determine how the population structure is changing and what impacts it might be having on the place
- The Labour Force Survey to determine the average income in an area, the types of work carried out by local people, and whether they are full-time or part-time
- This can help identify the types of lifestyles people in rural and urban areas might enjoy
- Index of multiple deprivatioin (IMD) data to identify small areas that are deprived
- The IMD is divided into seven deprivation categories (e.g. housing access and health), which can support the analysis of people’s perceptions
Level of Deprivation for Lerwick (2020)
Type of deprivation | Lerwick (Decile rank) |
Education | 7 |
Health | 5 |
Crime | 2 |
Housing access | 3 |
Income | 6 |
Employment | 6 |
-
- Deciles divide the ranked areas into 10 equal groups - the most deprived (1) to the least deprived (10)
- Lerwick has:
- Relatively low levels of deprivation for education
- High levels of crime - at least 80% of other places in Scotland experience less crime than Lerwick
- Poor levels of access to housing
- The National Well-being Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), measures the well-being of people living in the UK by assessing their life satisfaction, happiness, anxiety, and feeling that the things they do in life are worthwhile
- The results can be viewed at a local level e.g. Shetland and Liverpool
Personal well-being for Liverpool and Shetland (2022-2023)
Personal well-being measure (out of 10) | Liverpool | Shetland |
Life satisfaction | 7.1 | 7.9 |
Worthwhile | 7.6 | 8 |
Happiness | 7.3 | 8.2 |
Anxiety | 3.3 | 2 |
-
- The data shows that residents of Liverpool have lower levels of personal well-being than Shetland
- For anxiety, the higher the score, the more anxious people feel
- The data shows that residents of Liverpool have lower levels of personal well-being than Shetland
- Quantitative data is useful as it:
- Provides a way to measure the social, economic and environmental problems in an area
- Can be used to compare places
Exam Tip
Remember, not every person feels the same way about the area in which they happen to live. Perhaps, some people have been forced to move there due to the limited availability of social housing, so they feel unhappy. Other people may feel secure in the area, so they have a happy attachment to the place.
People’s perceptions (subjective opinions) and image of a place are personal, rather than objective, so quantitative evidence is harder to collect. You could design an interview to ask different population groups, such as secondary school students, retired people and working adults; also consider the ethnic diversity of the area’s population.
Some possible questions about belonging and place:
- How long have you lived in this place?
- Do you feel that you belong to this place?
- No
- What is it that makes you feel this way?
- Yes
- What is it that makes you feel this way?
- No
- Have your feelings changed during the time you have lived here?
- No
- Yes
- Have your feelings become more or less positive?
- What factors have prompted this change in feeling?
- What do you think is the most negative aspect of the place’s image today?
- What do you think is the most positive aspect of the place’s image today?
The quantitative evidence (e.g. census data and the personal well-being survey) can be used to support the findings of the qualitative data.