Working together to improve health and social care statistics

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The COVID-19 pandemic placed health and social care statistics into the headlines, encompassing a wide range of vital topics such as mortality, vaccine uptake, mental health and other health impacts. Nearly four years on from the first news reports of the ‘coronavirus’, the interest in health data and statistics has continued to grow. Julie Stanborough explains how we are working collaboratively with other data producers to improve health and social care statistics, and how you can have your say.

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Understanding harassment: Filling the evidence gap

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For the first time the ONS has published analysis of harassment using data from new questions on the Crime Survey for England and Wales. These invaluable insights show one in ten people aged 16 and over had experienced a form of harassment in the previous 12 months, with the findings particularly striking for younger women and men. Catherine Grant explains how today’s work is an important first step in improving the understanding of experience of harassment and how the survey will provide more granular insights as time goes on.

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Using the power of linked data to understand factors preventing people from working

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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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How the ONS values the natural world

As well as measuring changes to our society and economy, the Office for National Statistics has also been radically improving its measurement of what the natural world provides to us as part of its Beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP) agenda. Today we published improved estimates of our UK Natural Capital Accounts. Tristan Pett and Harry Davies write about how these figures are put together and what they show about our changing environment. 

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