National Statistical

The impact of the pandemic on the number of people living and working in the United Kingdom is an important question. Measuring the population has been particularly challenging in the last year with the ONS’s International Passenger Service suspended last year and interviews for the Labour Force Survey no longer taking place face-to-face. Here Jonathan Athow looks at the work that is taking place to identify new data that tell us more about the labour market and give us new insights on the UK population.    

In January Dame Moira Gibb shared the news of the recently established Inclusive Data Taskforce. These experts will advise the National Statistician on how to ensure our statistics reflect the experiences of everyone in society. In today’s blog, Dawn Snape provides an update on the work of the Taskforce so far and what to expect next. 

To mark International Women’s Day 2021 we sat down with one of the many talented women we have working at the Office for National Statistics. As Head of Analysis on the COVID-19 Infection Survey Ruth Studley has led the analysis and presentation of our infections and antibody data for much of the pandemic.  She recalls the experiences that have got her here and explains why she chose a career in statistics.

As the ONS prepares to publish UK trade statistics for January 2021, the first month since the end of the UK’s transition period with the European Union, Matt Hughes reflects on the challenges of producing these statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as looking at some of the new ways the ONS is collecting these data, now the EU transition period has come to an end.