Communicating uncertainty in GDP estimates

Craig McLaren
Categories: ONS
Graph picture

The UK economy has been affected by some unprecedented events in recent years, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic followed immediately by the huge rise in energy costs due to the war in the Ukraine. For the ONS, these have increased the challenge of producing economic statistics that are both fast and accurate. Dramatic changes in the underlying data tend to bring added uncertainty to our initial estimates. As Craig McLaren explains, we are exploring ways to better portray this in our statistical outputs.   

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PODCAST: Year in Review 2023

Categories: Census, Data, Economy, Integrated Data Service, Office for National Statistics, Population, UK Statistics Authority

It has been a radical and transformative 2023 for the Office for National Statistics, with work underway to future-proof its figures in a number of its outputs. National Statistician, Sir Ian Diamond, joins podcast host Miles Fletcher for the latest episode of Statistically Speaking, to look back over the past 12 months and discuss why change was needed. 

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Working together to improve health and social care statistics

Categories: Coronavirus, Health, Office for National Statistics, Office for Statistics Regulation, Population, Research, Wellbeing
Baby visits doctor

The COVID-19 pandemic placed health and social care statistics into the headlines, encompassing a wide range of vital topics such as mortality, vaccine uptake, mental health and other health impacts. Nearly four years on from the first news reports of the ‘coronavirus’, the interest in health data and statistics has continued to grow. Julie Stanborough explains how we are working collaboratively with other data producers to improve health and social care statistics, and how you can have your say.

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Understanding harassment: Filling the evidence gap

Categories: Crime, ONS, Population
An image of people walking down a street

For the first time the ONS has published analysis of harassment using data from new questions on the Crime Survey for England and Wales. These invaluable insights show one in ten people aged 16 and over had experienced a form of harassment in the previous 12 months, with the findings particularly striking for younger women and men. Catherine Grant explains how today’s work is an important first step in improving the understanding of experience of harassment and how the survey will provide more granular insights as time goes on.

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Using the power of linked data to understand factors preventing people from working

Categories: Coronavirus, Disability, Economy, Health, Office for National Statistics, Office for Statistics Regulation, ONS, Population, UK Statistics Authority, Wellbeing
Crowds of people walking through a busy street

Nearly 9 million working-age people in the UK were not working or looking for work – that is, economically inactive – from May to July 2023. This figure includes more than 2.5 million people inactive due to long-term sickness, an increase of half-a-million people since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma Rourke explains how linked, population-level data can improve our understanding of the interplay between health and work, with the goal of improving the wellbeing of individuals and the economy.

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