ABSTRACT
Official statistics, in one form or another, constitute the bedrock of public health. Indeed, the public health movement of mid-nineteenth century England gathered considerable momentum and force on the basis of the officially documented patterns of mortality associated with the cholera epidemics in London. Official statistics in the form of quantitative data are often referred to as national statistics. Consequently, government statistics departments in many countries are named the bureau or office of national statistics. The US government is unusual among high-income countries in not reporting health statistics by social class, preferring instead to present analyses in terms of race and gender. Mortality statistics have been used extensively to document the social gradient in health for men and women, as well as reveal the stark differences in life expectancy across social classes. Statistical modelling is a particular form of public health intelligence that has increasingly been used for planning and allocating resources.
