This book explains how the statistics that we see every day, e.g. hospital waiting lists, unemployment, opinion polls, customer surveys etc., are collected and what they really show us. The editors discuss how statistics about society are created, understood, misunderstood and manipulated and how a more informed use of official statistics can present a very different picture of society. The book is based around a series of short articles and shows how 'better' statistics can be constructed and how they can best be presented. It acts as an aid to the critical appraisal of how current data is collected and analysed, and suggests ways of cross-checking for accuracy.