Measuring the changing prices and costs faced by households

Image of supermarket checkout

The recent rise in UK inflation has focused much attention on this important metric. But the headline inflation rate is, of course, only an average figure and doesn’t necessarily reflect the price changes experienced by different people. In this post Mike Hardie explains the challenges of measuring everyone’s cost of living – and how some important new enhancements will provide a clearer picture in future. 

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Exploring how the ONS can work with businesses to measure the Sustainable Development Goals

Charting the UK’s progress towards measuring the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is a key undertaking for the Office for National Statistics. The range of data we are gathering extends well beyond the scope of our main statistical outputs. In this blog, Alex Lloyd reveals how her team at ONS is planning to use its specialist expertise to involve UK businesses in this global initiative.

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Understanding excess deaths during a pandemic

An image of building blogs arranged for the year 2020, with the end zero changing to a one to reflect the new year

To give meaningful comparisons of mortality over time, the Office for National Statistics uses a five-year average.  This is designed to show us the expected number of deaths for a given year. However, the pandemic has had a big impact on this average and of what a ‘normal’ year looks like. Sarah Caul explains why, for 2022, the year 2020 will not be included as part of our five-year average.

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Projecting the future population of the United Kingdom at a time of uncertainty

An image of people walking down a street

Projecting the possible future size and composition of the UK population is of importance for national level decision-making and policy. In this blog James Robards explains some of the considerations and challenges in developing national population projections, particularly at a point in time when the demographic impacts arising from the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic continue to unfold.

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