Office for Statistics Regulation

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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Help shape the future of population and migration statistics

Categories: Census, Office for National Statistics, Office for Statistics Regulation, ONS, Population, UK Statistics Authority
Understanding the UK's population is vital

For the past four months the ONS has been running a consultation on the future of population and migration statistics. We’ve been asking users of our statistics what they want in a transformed system and whether our proposals meet their needs. With one week to go, Jen Woolford explains why it’s vital everyone has their say.

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Census 2021 gender identity estimates: progress and next steps

Categories: Census, Office for National Statistics, Office for Statistics Regulation, ONS, Population, UK Statistics Authority

One of our key roles as statisticians is to paint a picture of society according to how people describe themselves. Our responsibility is to keep pace with how society defines itself and to make our statistics available as promptly as possible. Data from Census 2021 are so rich and complex that the publication of the first results is far from the end of our work. Sometimes we can unearth unexpected patterns as we undertake further analysis and gather feedback from users about their findings. Emma Rourke explains what we know about census gender identity data so far.

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The challenges of measuring crimes against children post-pandemic 

Categories: Crime, Office for Statistics Regulation, Population

Understanding children’s experiences of crime and factors that make children more at risk of victimisation is crucial to enabling evidence-informed decision making and policies that support and protect young people. Today, for the first time since before the pandemic, we have been able to produce estimates on crimes against children. However, as Sophie Sanders explains, it has not been without challenge. 

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