Data

Measuring the digital economy:  Adapting and Evolving  

Shot of user on laptop also using a phone and with a credit card as if online shopping

For over a decade, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has provided vital insight into the UK digital economy, tracking development across E-commerce and ICT use, Internet Access, Internet Users and Sharing Economy. As the pandemic has transformed elements of how we conduct business and live our lives, Emma Reed talks about how the ONS is working to improve our measurement of the digital economy.   

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How the ONS is helping to deliver the National Data Strategy

The UK’s National Data Strategy sets out the government’s vision for supporting the UK to build a world-leading data economy.  The Office for National Statistics is mentioned throughout and is playing a pivotal role on delivering several elements of this strategy.  In today’s blog Alison Pritchard talks through all of the work the ONS is doing for this strategy to ensure the UK is able to transform the way it uses data in order to improve decision making and the services people rely on.

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Strengthening Income and Earnings statistics

Image depicting income data, charts and a pile of coins

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of producing a clear and consistent UK-wide picture of people’s lives and the state of the economy. Our statistics on income and earnings are a critical component of this picture, necessary to understand its impact on wages, incomes, and more broadly household finances. Here, Debra Prestwood explains how statistical producers from across the Government Statistical Service (GSS) are coming together to improve the coherence and accessibility of these data.

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Trade off: different ways of measuring imports and exports

Image shows a shipping container being craned off a container lorry, indicative of trade

In the post-Brexit period, official trade statistics are being scrutinised as never before.  It’s been noted that the UK figures from the ONS appear to tell a different story from those released by Eurostat, the EU’s own statistical agency. In this post Matt Hughes examines those discrepancies and explains why they don’t mean one side is necessarily wrong.    

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