Referenced by 3 other explainers
Community-validation is a way of reading small-area figures with care. A small-area figure is a statistical pattern. It is not a community's own account of itself.
The authority to say what these numbers mean for a community belongs to that community, not to the dataset. A figure can show a broad pattern. It cannot speak for the people it counts.
This matters most for small groups and small areas, where a few responses shape the whole figure. Read these numbers as a starting point, not a final word.
Place Forecast presents the figures. The community holds the account of what they mean.