Office for National Statistics

Supermarket Sweep: Measuring inflation with billion of bleeps

The latest episode of the Statistically Speaking podcast reveals how the ONS is now measuring UK consumer price inflation with data gathered from supermarket checkouts. Our guests explain why it’s a step change in the production of this vital economic indicator that broadens our understanding of the real cost of the living.

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How the ONS is streamlining its approach to national well-being

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 month UN secretary general António Guterres called on the international community to “go beyond gross domestic product as a measure of human progress and wellbeing.” In fact for some years now, the ONS has been going far beyond traditional measures of the economy – including GDP – by introducing statistics which seek to measure national well-being. Today we are introducing a new, streamlined framework for reporting these metrics. Here Richard Heys sets out this new approach. 

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Separating fact from fiction: how the ‘industry’ of survey collection is far more than a BBC plot device

man with clipboard

Tina Thomas, Deputy Director for Social Survey Field Collection, explains how a compelling BBC plot device does not reflect how ONS surveys operate in real life, and reminds us of how our interviewers are at the heart of what we do.

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