Excess deaths – a new methodology and better understanding

Categories: Coronavirus, Data, Health, UK Statistics Authority

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened interest in patterns and levels of ‘excess’ deaths, typically defined as deaths over the number that might be expected to occur in an ‘average’ year. But with different organisations using different methods to calculate excess deaths, it can be difficult to build a clear picture. Working across government and the devolved nations, we have now agreed a common UK-wide approach to producing national estimates of excess mortality. As Julie Stanborough explains, this new methodology will give us a better understanding in this complex area.

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How the ONS is transforming its statistics for local areas

Categories: Data, Economy, ONS, ONS Local, Population
Innovation Picture

The ONS produces a huge amount of high-quality data covering the economy, environment, crime and immigration. Over the last few years, we’ve also been focusing our efforts on producing much more granular estimates so we can measure how our society and economy is changing at the local level. Emma Hickman writes about how this work is progressing and what insights we’ve produced. 

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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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A voice for UK businesses – a milestone for our business insights survey

Categories: Business, Coronavirus, Data, Economy, Office for National Statistics, Public Policy
Image of a person inputting data

Back in March 2020, life changed very suddenly as COVID-19 struck. In the first days of lockdown the ONS set up what it thought would be a temporary rapid business survey to assess how the pandemic was impacting UK businesses. Gemma Rabaiotti explains how four years and 100 waves of responses later, the Business Impact of Coronavirus survey– now renamed the Business Insights and Conditions survey – (BICS) has cemented its place as a timely and vital voice on the challenges facing businesses today.

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