News
Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life.
Plus, the Sycamore Gap tree, pensioner-worker ratios and yoga v fishers.
Plus, skilled migrants, preventing Alzheimer’s and Robert Prevost on God and probability.
Also, counting bobbies, freezing tax and electrocuting redheads
Plus, what has Canada done to Donald Trump? Is Rachel Reeves chasing the model?
Plus, did trillions disappear from UK pensions? Why does the UK have a lot of old housing?
Plus, UK v Russia on free speech and the collapse of the Labour Force Survey.
Five years on, Tim Harford looks at the data on the effect of lockdown.
Fact-checking government efficiency claims in the US.
The numbers behind Ukraine’s rare earth worth and the UK’s defence spending ambitions.
Plus, winter fuel deaths, prison sentence maths and leaves on railway tracks.
Plus: MP capital gains claims and grizzly bear berry habits.
Plus: the taxes of 60 very rich people, water bill spreadsheets, and is 0 a small number?
Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter’s origin story.
Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.
Plus, ONS transgender stats, early-onset cancer, and puzzles you’re meant to get wrong.
Plus, asylum seeker costs, private school bets and Baumol's cost disease
Plus migrants v pensioners and Ed Miliband’s energy auction claim.
Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK.
The UK's money troubles, NHS managers and a 54% chance of winning a point in tennis.
What did Liz Truss do to mortgage rates? Do erections use a litre of blood?
We check some of the numbers that are flying about in the election campaign.
We look at bad graphs, oil rig extrapolations and pupil populations.
Fact-checking the leaders' debate, tax evasion savings and the weight of ants.
Is the UK economy growing faster than , and the US?
Will it take 685 years to clear the NHS waiting list? Are 10% of MPs under investigation?
Is school funding at record levels? Did 6.5bn creatures come to the UK by plane last year?
What does per capita GDP tell us? How much did the EU spend on Covid recovery?
What is the government’s rule on debt? Do 90% of chip shops sell shark and chips?
