Inclusive Income: How COVID-19 affected our new measures

Categories: Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS, Research
Image of grandparents playing with a baby

Our headline measure of the size of the economy, Gross Domestic Product, is produced rapidly and relied on widely. So it’s no surprise that when the pandemic hit in 2020 we saw a focus on the rapid fall in output it revealed. But how does our understanding change if we take a wider perspective on the economy and account for the sustainability of economic activity? Here Cliodhna Taylor looks at some wider metrics that we have just published for that period.

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Measuring Climate Impacts on Health

Categories: Environment, Health, International, ONS, Population, Wellbeing
Tree with Right hand side full of leaves on health patch of grass and the other half is dead with no leaves on a dried up patch of mud

Climate related emergencies have made frequent headlines over the last few years, from record heatwaves and wildfires, to increased flood risk – but how can we measure how our climate, and the changes we are seeing, are affecting us?
Without this evidence, we cannot know the true health burden of climate change. This is where the ONS Climate & Health Project fits in – a four-year project, funded by Wellcome, which we began in February 2022. As we pass the project mid-way point, Gillian Flower reflects on the achievements so far, and the wider implications of this important work.

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Big Ticket Items: How ONS is transforming its measures of inflation 

Categories: ONS
Picture of row of terraced houses

Today marks an important step in the ONS’s transformation journey, with the launch of new private housing rents statistics. Utilising far more data points than before, these new measures allow us to measure both the level and rate of change in rental prices right down to local authority areas. Chris Jenkins tells us about these new figures as well as our new data source for measuring the prices of second-hand cars.   

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