Since the appearance of Omicron variants in December 2021, the number of people being reinfected with COVID-19 has increased markedly. As Leanne Massie explains, this affects our ability to estimate the total number of people who have had COVID-19 at least once.
Read more on How many people have had COVID-19? The challenge of reinfections
Since 2011, the ONS has been measuring ‘National Well-being’ to evaluate how we are doing as a nation. National Well-being includes the things that people have told us matter most to them, across the environment, society and economy. Here Liz McKeown looks at our GDP & Beyond work, focusing on responses to our recent online survey reviewing how we measure National Well-being.
Read more on What matters most to people in the UK and has that changed over time?
In an uncertain world, how is public data helping us to tackle complex and cross-cutting issues in society?
This is just one question we answer in the latest episode of Statistically Speaking, as we take a closer look at an aspect of the ONS’s work that is less well-known but arguably just as important. Joining Miles for this episode are Jason Yaxley, Director of ONS’ Integrated Data Programme; Bill South, Deputy Director of the Research Services and Data Access division at ONS; and Dr. Becky Arnold, award winning researcher from Keele University.
Read more on Boosting the UK’s research capabilities to help solve the challenges of the day
The end of the Brexit transition period, the post-pandemic recovery and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have all provoked heightened interest in the ONS trade figures, especially trade by country. While direct imports and exports between the UK and other countries are the most obvious data point, it’s often important to also know where goods have originated from.
With new figures looking at the impact of sanctions on the UK’s trade with Russia published this morning, in this post Hannah Donnarumma explains the different ways of looking at import figures, and the different perspectives they offer.
Read more on Different ways of measuring trade: Where do our imports come from?
Statistics for local levels of geography are essential to understand the issues affecting communities as well as helping all levels of government measure the progress of their policies. Emma Hickman explains how the ONS is rising to meet the challenge of delivering these detailed data.
Read more on Going local – delivering data for our communities