Population

Understanding our future population: Why projections are not predictions

Categories: Census, International, migration, Office for National Statistics, ONS, Population
Image of people

There are many reasons for wanting to know the size of the future population of the UK. How many school places will we need? How many hospitals? How many people will claim a State Pension? But looking into the future is challenging. As James Robards explains, our population projections take into account current and past trends, and as those patterns change, we adjust our projections accordingly.

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PODCAST: Year in Review 2023

Categories: Census, Data, Economy, Integrated Data Service, Office for National Statistics, Population, UK Statistics Authority

It has been a radical and transformative 2023 for the Office for National Statistics, with work underway to future-proof its figures in a number of its outputs. National Statistician, Sir Ian Diamond, joins podcast host Miles Fletcher for the latest episode of Statistically Speaking, to look back over the past 12 months and discuss why change was needed. 

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Working together to improve health and social care statistics

Categories: Coronavirus, Health, Office for National Statistics, Office for Statistics Regulation, Population, Research, Wellbeing
Baby visits doctor

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

Categories: Crime, ONS, Population
An image of people walking down a street

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

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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