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I've been selected to participate in the ABS' data collection process in the past.in fact i have documentation on how the 'unemployed ' were tallied in Australia dated 1990 i doubt that has been changed for the better
Bearing in mind that it's quite invasive with the data collected and participation is in no way voluntary. If you're chosen, you're doing it and you can't legally keep too many secrets about your life.
Having been through the process, I'd be surprised if some participants didn't do things which distort the data. When everything you buy is being recorded, there'd be at least some temptation to omit mention of anything someone views as shameful or otherwise didn't want to tell the government about even where no law is being broken. Paying for sex would be an obvious example that some would probably not want to disclose but even things like alcohol, cigarettes or gambling some might view as a sin of sorts that they'd rather not admit to especially not if they're at the high end of consumption.
So I'm a bit wary of statistics yes.