3.5.2 Eurostat Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. Its task is to provide the EU with statistics at EU level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Eurostat’s sources for the UK include survey data in the form of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the International Passenger Survey (IPS) which are both undertaken by the ONS. Recorded numbers of stateless persons in the UK from 2001 to 2008 by Eurostat are set out in Figure 23 below. Figure 25: Stateless populations in the UK by year as derived from UK survey data Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Source Total population 7850 : 1174 915 : : : : LFS weighted estimates Immigration 551 87 242 331 325 : : : IPS with LFS used to weight for regional variation Emigration 0 0 411 204 0 0 176 : IPS with LFS used to weight for regional variation SOURCE: Eurostat (:) – data not available There are, however, problems created by the process Eurostat uses for weighting the data107 from both the Labour Force Survey and the International Passenger Survey meaning data is often recorded as “unavailable”. In addition, there are also problems in the identification 56 104 United Nations statisticians recommend, in international discussion on censuses, that “provisions should be made in order to obtain separate data for stateless persons”. See UN Economic Commission for Europe, Conference of European Statisticians Recommendations for the 2010 Censuses of Populations and Housing: point 377, 2006, available at: http://www.bfs.admin. ch/bfs/portal/de/index/news/02/02.parsys.43257.downloadList.37177.DownloadFile.tmp/ recommendationsforcensusen.pdf. 105 2011 Census Questionnaire Content: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/ the-2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for2011/index.html. Question numbers detailed here refer to the census as carried out in England. 106 This analysis will have to note that census data tends to under-enumerate particular groups, such as those in temporary accommodation, those who are not literate in English, and vulnerable groups such as undocumented migrants who may wish to remain hidden. Consequently, the analysis of the census data would therefore still have to be considered in the context of other data sources. 107 In order for Eurostat to convert the information it gains from survey samples, and produce estimates which are generalised across the whole population, the data must be weighted. Each case is given a weight that can be thought of as the number of people that case represents nationally. People with a lower probability of being in the sample are given a higher weight. For example, in 2004, only six individuals were recorded in the Labour Force Survey as being stateless. This figure was weighted up by Eurostat to produce a figure of 915. However, if the numbers of cases recorded in any one year are too small, a weighting procedure is deemed inappropriate and Eurostat publishes a count of zero or “not available”. As the numbers of stateless people recorded are relatively low in general, this process of weighting produces numbers that fluctuate greatly, because one additional case alone can increase the weighted figure substantially. Mapping statelessness