On the market – how the ONS measures property prices

Categories: ONS
Monopoly type house pieces sat on top of pound coins

House prices are attracting a lot of attention at the moment with speculation around whether we may see a housing market crash amidst a sluggish economy. Here at the ONS, we have also seen some debate about how average house prices, such as those published in our UK House Price Index (HPI) are calculated as well as some queries around the timeliness of our HPI data. Chris Jenkins explains the detailed calculations that take place in order that we can produce meaningful and comparable measures of change across the UK.  

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What is the meaning of life?  Measuring National well-being in the UK

Categories: Data, Economy, Health, Public Policy, Wellbeing
A group of people looking happy, they have their arms around each other and are in a park type setting with sunlight behind them

This week, ONS has published a range of data on what people tell us matters most to them when it comes to living a good and meaningful life.  Here Tim Vizard looks at what we’ve discovered, why it is important and our plans to continue exploring beyond purely economic measures to get a fuller picture of how our society is doing.

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Creating a coherent picture of health in the UK

Categories: Data, Health, Office for National Statistics, ONS Local
Ambulances outside hospital

How do we create an overall picture of health in the UK, when the data produced by each of the four nations can be different? Statistical coherence is about bringing together statistics on the same topic to give a better understanding of the part of the world they describe. In this blog, Becky Tinsley explains how the ONS, the devolved administrations, and health bodies, are working together to improve the comparability of UK health data, allowing us to better join the pieces of the puzzle.

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Putting census data to greater work

Categories: Census, Data, Integrated Data Service, ONS, Population, Secure Research Service
Image of a person inputting data

Our drive to make census statistics available in innovative ways has seen a suite of exciting new products released this year. With customisable maps and datasets, we have broken new ground for official statistics. In the latest development, Jen Woolford explains how census data is being put to even greater work by improving statistical insight on the most pressing social challenges of the day.

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Creating the best picture of changes in the labour market – an update

Categories: ONS
An image of people walking down a street

The ONS is transitioning to better methods of data collection fit for the digital age. The changes in progress mean some temporary disruption as traditional surveys are updated or replaced. In this post Darren Morgan explains how we are adapting our approach to maintain the accuracy of our key labour market statistics during this transitional phase.  

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