Developing the Health Index for England

Categories: Office for National Statistics, ONS, Public Policy, Wellbeing

In 2018, Dame Sally Davies, then Chief Medical Officer, called for an official index on England’s health. Her aim was to ensure that “health is recognised and treated as one of our nation’s primary assets…alongside GDP and the Measuring National Well-being programme.” As consultation on the proposed index gets under way, Greg Ceely explains the development work ONS has undertaken so far and what the provisional findings show.

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Giving the best picture of international migration in times of a pandemic

Categories: migration, ONS, Population
Picture of an empty Heathrow airport

A significant economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the disruption to worldwide travel. The ONS has now produced its initial report on what happened to migration and mobility patterns in the first six months of the pandemic.  Here Rebecca Briggs explains the findings and updates on our progress towards a new and fundamentally different approach to measuring UK migration.    

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How the ONS crime figures help us to better understand the risks to children

Categories: Crime, ONS
A young boy is sitting on a swing set and looking at a shadow figure of a man or bully at a playground

In 2018 the Children’s Commissioner’s Office in England highlighted the need for better data on the numbers of children living in households where adult domestic abuse, mental ill-health or substance misuse may be present. Sophie Sanders explains how the Office for National Statistics has developed its first analysis to help better understand how the presence of these issues could impact on childhood vulnerability.

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Making it count: How we are introducing ‘double deflation’ into UK GDP

Categories: ONS
Factory assembly line

The ONS has been developing a new, improved method for producing GDP over the last few years. Today the first experimental estimates are being published fully using this new system, which include the much vaunted ‘double deflation’ adjustments to the figures. Here, Rob Kent Smith talks about the new figures and why they are important. 

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