Office for National Statistics

What is GDP and how do we measure it?

Craig McLaren
Categories: Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS
Car Factory Engineer in High Visibility Vest Using Laptop Computer in an Automotive Industrial Manufacturing Facility

Gross Domestic Product, more commonly known as GDP, remains the world’s most closely-watched economic indicator. Its growth – or lack of it – is used to measure economic progress. A positive GDP reading suggests an economy is growing, a negative one that it’s slowing down. But there is much more to GDP that just one number. In this post Craig McLaren is our guide to how GDP is calculated and how it’s best understood.  

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Inclusive measures of growth – How ONS is moving Beyond GDP

Categories: Coronavirus, Economy, Environment, Office for National Statistics, ONS, Public Policy, Wellbeing

GDP is a well-used metric for measuring changes in the size of economies around the world. However, it has its limitations. Richard Heys writes about the continuing developments at the ONS to go beyond GDP by including measures of the impact of growth on people, the climate and environment.

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Uncertainty and the ‘r’ word: What exactly is a ‘recession’?

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, ONS
Image of graphs and money, indicating financial markets

In times when the economy appears to be slowing, commentators will inevitably debate whether or not it is moving into ‘recession’. There is, however, no official definition of a recession and the one most commonly used has the potential to be misleading. In this post Darren Morgan reveals why in official statistics the ONS tends to avoid using the ‘r’ word.    

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The Health Index 2020 – measuring the nation’s health

Categories: Office for National Statistics, ONS, Wellbeing

The ONS’ Health Index is a rich data set that gives us an overall picture of the nation’s health and how it has been declining or improving. We can also see in close-up how health varies from area to area and what local factors are in play. As we publish our findings up to 2020, Greg Ceely explains what our data show and how the Health Index is already proving a useful tool for local health leaders.

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