More or Less: Behind the Stats

By BBC Radio 4

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Category: Business

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Subscribers: 7674
Reviews: 20
Episodes: 300


 Apr 2, 2023


 Oct 11, 2022


 Mar 29, 2022

Natalie
 Oct 24, 2020
The wise and measured words of Tim Harford are the perfect plague-time tonic. Loyal listeners are well rewarded.

Victor
 Oct 21, 2020
one of my favourites from the BBC

Description

Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4


Episode Date
Will there be a billion climate refugees?
Dec 02, 2023
A boy meets girl meets stats story
Nov 25, 2023
Are women in the UK the biggest binge drinkers in the world?
Nov 18, 2023
Can maths prove the existence of aliens?
Nov 11, 2023
Do Indian women own 11% of the world’s gold?
Nov 04, 2023
The Overlooked Mathematicians of History
Oct 28, 2023
What do windscreen splats tell us about insect decline?
Oct 21, 2023
Greedy jobs and the gender pay gap
Oct 14, 2023
Are half the words in English from French?
Oct 07, 2023
Vaccine claims, Alzheimer's treatment and Tim's Parkrun times
Oct 04, 2023
Is the UK really ahead in cutting carbon emissions?
Sep 30, 2023
NHS consultant pay, Net Zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes
Sep 27, 2023
Which city has the longest canals?
Sep 23, 2023
Social housing, NHS workforce and Liz Truss debt claims
Sep 20, 2023
How to approach the world through numbers
Sep 16, 2023
Skin cancer, London rents and your great great great granddaughter
Sep 13, 2023
Did 35,000 Americans die building the Panama Canal?
Sep 11, 2023
Covid deaths, North Sea gas and Chloe Kelly's World Cup penalty
Sep 06, 2023
What percentage of our brain do we actually use?
Sep 02, 2023
HS2 and electric cars, UK vs China emissions & massive maths errors
Aug 30, 2023
How safe is the release of Fukushima nuclear plant water?
Aug 26, 2023
How many butterflies are there in the world?
Aug 19, 2023
Why is it so hard to predict the outcome of competitions like the Premier League?
Aug 12, 2023
Are the media exaggerating how hot it is in the Mediterranean?
Aug 05, 2023
Data, extreme weather and climate change
Jul 29, 2023
Ukraine war: A new way of calculating Russian deaths
Jul 22, 2023
Are more adult nappies sold in Japan than baby ones?
Jul 15, 2023
Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?
Jul 08, 2023
Immigration: A More or Less Special Programme
Jul 05, 2023
Will there be just 6 grandchildren for every 100 South Koreans?
Jul 01, 2023
Halving inflation, Scottish tidal power and have 1 in 3 women had an abortion?
Jun 28, 2023
US National Debt: is $32 trillion a big number?
Jun 24, 2023
Mortgages, birth rates and does space contribute 18% to UK GDP?
Jun 21, 2023
Is breastfeeding the key to exam success?
Jun 17, 2023
Electric vehicles, 600 million bottles and does oral sex cause cancer?
Jun 14, 2023
Counting Hunger in India
Jun 10, 2023
Lib Dem ambulance claims, affordable rent and goat meat
Jun 07, 2023
A short history of data
Jun 03, 2023
Food prices, net migration and beef about beef
May 31, 2023
Are young people more single than ever before?
May 28, 2023
NHS waiting lists, Voter ID and measuring divorce
May 24, 2023
Detecting Bad Science with Data
May 20, 2023
Do 94% of marriages in Portugal really end in divorce?
May 13, 2023
Why is life expectancy falling in the USA?
May 06, 2023
How much is the Coronation crown worth?
Apr 29, 2023
The Pentagon Leaks and Fox News
Apr 22, 2023
How accurate is baby's due date?
Apr 15, 2023
How to better understand and explain numbers
Apr 08, 2023
A groundbreaking new proof for Pythagoras’ Theorem?
Apr 01, 2023
Covid vaccines and false claims about miscarriage
Mar 25, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank: a very modern bank run
Mar 18, 2023
Do fungi kill three times as many people as malaria?
Mar 11, 2023
Does your jewellery contain stolen Brink’s-Mat gold?
Mar 04, 2023
UK vs European energy prices, falling excess deaths and is 5 grams of cocaine a lot?
Mar 01, 2023
Do 29,000 coffee pods really go to landfill every minute?
Feb 25, 2023
Reoffending rates, Welsh taxes and the menopause
Feb 22, 2023
Florence Nightingale and how she visualised data
Feb 18, 2023
Nurses' pay, ambulance times and forgotten female economists
Feb 15, 2023
Spreadsheet disasters
Feb 11, 2023
The IMF and the UK economy, NHS staff shortages and British vs English
Feb 08, 2023
Hannah Fry on using shopping data to detect ovarian cancer
Feb 04, 2023
Brexit and trade, pensioner millionaires and Hannah Fry on loyalty cards and cancer
Feb 01, 2023
Are wild mammals only 4% of the mammal population?
Jan 28, 2023
Coffee with the Chancellor, inflation measures, GP numbers and toilet paper
Jan 25, 2023
Does toilet paper cause 15% of global deforestation?
Jan 21, 2023
Ambulance response times, teacher pay and Irish pubs
Jan 18, 2023
How we shook the world of very large numbers
Jan 14, 2023
A&E delays and deaths, religious identity in N Ireland and naming the monster numbers
Jan 11, 2023
Can China's data on covid deaths be trusted?
Jan 07, 2023
Irish pubs - a global numbers game
Dec 31, 2022
Numbers of the Year 2022
Dec 24, 2022
Qatar World Cup: the pressure of penalties
Dec 17, 2022
Why are data so important in determining how we live?
Dec 10, 2022
The World Cup: how many migrant workers have died?
Dec 03, 2022
When do food shortages become a famine?
Nov 26, 2022
A $220 billion World Cup?
Nov 19, 2022
Bonus Episode: Understand the Economy
Nov 14, 2022
Improving the numbers in the news
Nov 12, 2022
Lula’s “zero deforestation” plan for the Amazon
Nov 05, 2022
Can China’s GDP data be trusted?
Oct 29, 2022
Do half of new books really sell fewer than twelve copies?
Oct 22, 2022
Ben Bernanke and the magic of banking
Oct 15, 2022
Catching Chess Cheats with Data
Oct 08, 2022
Teens and antidepressants, stamp duty savings and earthquake probabilities
Oct 07, 2022
NASA’s asteroid collision: how many asteroids are really out there?
Oct 01, 2022
Falling pound, the Queen’s funeral and is 0.5 on the Richter scale a big number?
Sep 28, 2022
Ukraine’s progress in numbers
Sep 24, 2022
Ukraine offensive, weak pound & how much do women really exercise
Sep 22, 2022
How bad is fashion for the environment?
Sep 17, 2022
Energy crisis plan, imperial measures survey, gardens v national parks
Sep 14, 2022
Is a third of Pakistan really under water?
Sep 10, 2022
Pakistan flooding, UK power prices and Boris’s broadband claim
Sep 07, 2022
Can we use maths to beat the robots?
Sep 03, 2022
Energy prices, excess deaths and the race to count to 200
Aug 31, 2022
Kenya’s Election Rounding Error
Aug 27, 2022
The numbers behind “natural” birth control
Aug 20, 2022
Is opinion polling broken?
Aug 13, 2022
Debunking the Liverpool FC Conspiracy Theory
Aug 06, 2022
How our world measures up
Jul 30, 2022
Does the World Athletics Championships have a false start problem?
Jul 23, 2022
Is Uganda about to become a middle income country?
Jul 16, 2022
Does it take 10,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans?
Jul 09, 2022
How many American women will have an abortion in their lifetime?
Jul 02, 2022
Covid climb, childcare costs and why can’t the French count properly?
Jun 29, 2022
Ed Sheeran and the mathematics of musical coincidences
Jun 25, 2022
Rail strikes, tyre pollution and sex statistics
Jun 22, 2022
How often do people have sex?
Jun 18, 2022
Maternity litigation, stars, bees and windowless planes
Jun 15, 2022
Hannah Fry: Understanding the numbers of cancer
Jun 11, 2022
Employment puzzle, pyramids and triplets
Jun 08, 2022
Are girls starting puberty earlier?
Jun 04, 2022
Jubilee costs, fuel poverty and imperial measures
Jun 01, 2022
Noisy Decisions
May 28, 2022
Germany’s excess deaths, Eurovision and teacher shortages
May 25, 2022
Are just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions and how stressed are South Africans?
May 21, 2022
Did the WHO get some of its excess death estimates wrong?
May 14, 2022
Have the oceans become 30% more acidic?
May 07, 2022
Sweden’s polarising pandemic response
Apr 30, 2022
Understanding India through Data
Apr 23, 2022
Subitising and simplifying: how to better explain numbers
Apr 15, 2022
Did tea-drinking cut deaths in the Industrial Revolution?
Apr 09, 2022
Will the war in Ukraine cause a global wheat shortage?
Apr 02, 2022
Pizza and Nuclear War
Mar 20, 2022
Does the UK take in more refugees than other European countries?
Mar 13, 2022
Numbers in Ukraine and low seas in Chagos
Mar 06, 2022
Troop and Casualty Numbers in Ukraine
Mar 02, 2022
Did lockdowns save any lives?
Feb 27, 2022
Vaccinating children, lockdowns, and ebikes
Feb 23, 2022
Hospitalisation rates for children with Covid
Feb 20, 2022
Questioning claims about Covid and children
Feb 16, 2022
Testosterone and sport
Feb 13, 2022
The prime minister in statistical bother
Feb 09, 2022
Can you fool your brain?
Feb 06, 2022
Does the UK have the fastest growing economy in the G7?
Feb 02, 2022
Fertility rates: baby boom or bust?
Jan 30, 2022
Should you follow the 5 second rule? And does inflation hit the poorest harder?
Jan 26, 2022
Are female patients more likely to die if the surgeon is male?
Jan 23, 2022
Are women 32% more likely to die after operation by a male surgeon?
Jan 19, 2022
QAnon: Did 365,348 children go missing in the US in 2020?
Jan 16, 2022
Omicron, pandemic birth rates and boosters
Jan 12, 2022
How much plastic is in the Ocean and can Mr Beast make a difference?
Jan 09, 2022
Will the population of Nigeria be larger than Europe’s?
Jan 02, 2022
Numbers of 2021
Dec 26, 2021
The psychological economics of gift giving
Dec 19, 2021
Does catching covid give you more immunity than being vaccinated?
Dec 12, 2021
Does wearing a mask halve your chances of getting Covid-19?
Dec 05, 2021
Simpson’s Paradox: How to make vaccinated death figures misleading
Nov 28, 2021
A TikTok tale
Nov 21, 2021
The carbon cost of breakfast at COP26
Nov 14, 2021
Same data, opposite results. Can we trust research?
Nov 07, 2021
The art of counting
Oct 31, 2021
The numbers behind Squid Game
Oct 24, 2021
The prize-winning economics of migration and the minimum wage
Oct 17, 2021
Bonus episode: the first ever More or Less
Oct 07, 2021
Twenty years of More or Less
Oct 06, 2021
The Gender Pay Gap
Oct 03, 2021
Is it easy being green?
Sep 29, 2021
Covid trends, face mask use, and the universal credit cut
Sep 22, 2021
How many holes are there in a drinking straw?
Sep 19, 2021
Death, Tax and Dishwashers
Sep 15, 2021
Vaccine waning, hot dogs and Afghanistan
Sep 08, 2021
The Bill for Afghanistan
Sep 04, 2021
Covid, HGV driver shortages and protest costs
Sep 01, 2021
Reason, numbers and Mr Spock
Aug 28, 2021
The extraordinary life of Robert Moses
Aug 21, 2021
How good were the performances at the Tokyo Olympics?
Aug 16, 2021
Jab fears explained: a base rate fallacy
Aug 07, 2021
Breaking Climate Records
Jul 31, 2021
The Rise of Delta
Jul 24, 2021
The Freedom Day Gamble
Jul 19, 2021
Are there 40 million Nigerians on Twitter?
Jul 10, 2021
Is Ivermectin a Covid ‘wonder drug’?
Jul 03, 2021
Scotland cases, flood risk and taxing the poor
Jun 30, 2021
Maths and the Mayflower
Jun 26, 2021
Delta cases, blue tits and that one-in-two cancer claim
Jun 23, 2021
The origins of Covid
Jun 19, 2021
Covid deaths, outdoor swimming and care homes
Jun 16, 2021
The doubling of life-expectancy
Jun 12, 2021
Third wave fears, smart motorways and bra sizes
Jun 09, 2021
Bolton vaccines, Yorkshire versus Scotland and the average gamer
Jun 02, 2021
The Seaspiracy “virtually empty ocean” claim
May 29, 2021
Wales jab success, Eurovision and living with your parents
May 26, 2021
The medical trial that proved Trump wrong
May 22, 2021
Explaining maths without Numbers
May 15, 2021
Finding Mexico City’s real death toll
May 08, 2021
Bayes: the clergyman whose maths changed the world
May 02, 2021
Will 2021 have more Covid deaths than 2020?
Apr 24, 2021
How many swimming pools full of vaccine do we need?
Apr 17, 2021
Clot risks: The Pill versus the vaccine
Apr 10, 2021
Too fast for Minecraft?
Apr 04, 2021
In praise of Covid Data
Mar 27, 2021
Deciding when to suspend a vaccine
Mar 20, 2021
The truth about obesity and Covid 19
Mar 13, 2021
Sainthood and Cup draws
Mar 06, 2021
Why are US Covid cases falling?
Feb 27, 2021
Covid 19 death count: which countries are faring worst?
Feb 20, 2021
Comparing death counts, Lock Down drinking and Long Covid
Feb 17, 2021
How much Covid in the World?
Feb 13, 2021
Brexit exports, cladding and are 1 in 5 disabled?
Feb 10, 2021
Glasgow vs Rwanda
Feb 06, 2021
Teachers, Test & Trace and Butterflies
Feb 03, 2021
The Rapid Test Row
Jan 30, 2021
Deaths at Home, Supermarket Infections and the Cobra Effect
Jan 27, 2021
Deaths at home, supermarket infections and the Cobra effect
Jan 27, 2021
Counting Covid’s impact on GDP
Jan 23, 2021
Will the vaccine bring back normal life? GDP and Fishing
Jan 20, 2021
How effective is one dose of the vaccine?
Jan 14, 2021
Ants and Algorithms
Jan 09, 2021
Numbers of the year: Part two
Jan 08, 2021
Numbers of the year: Part one
Jan 08, 2021
The economics of a Covid Christmas
Dec 19, 2020
QAnon: Child runaways and trafficking numbers debunked
Dec 12, 2020
Vaccines: how safe and who gets it?
Dec 05, 2020
Tracking Covid 19
Nov 28, 2020
Inviting Covid for Dinner
Nov 21, 2020
Vaccine numbers
Nov 14, 2020
How deadly is Covid 19?
Nov 07, 2020
Asymptomatic Covid19 Cases
Oct 31, 2020
US election: facts or fiction
Oct 24, 2020
Auction Theory - Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson
Oct 17, 2020
A short history of probability
Oct 10, 2020
Spreadsheet snafu, ‘Long Covid’ quantified, and the birth of probability
Oct 07, 2020
“Record” Covid cases, Trump on the death count, and ant pheromones
Sep 30, 2020
Covid curve queried, false positives, and the Queen’s head
Sep 23, 2020
The magical maths of pool testing
Sep 19, 2020
Covid testing capacity, refugee numbers, and mascara
Sep 16, 2020
Covid cases rising, a guide to life’s risks, and racing jelly-fish
Sep 09, 2020
Schools and coronavirus, test and trace, maths and reality
Sep 02, 2020
Covid plasma therapy
Aug 26, 2020
A-level algorithms, poker and buses
Aug 19, 2020
Belarus’ contested election
Aug 15, 2020
Hawaiian Pizza, obesity and a second wave?
Aug 12, 2020
Melting Antarctic ice
Aug 08, 2020
Covid in Africa
Aug 01, 2020
Data in the time of cholera
Jul 25, 2020
Covid misconceptions and US deaths
Jul 18, 2020
Sweden’s lockdown lite
Jul 11, 2020
Why Trump is wrong about the USA’s coronavirus case comeback
Jul 04, 2020
Why did the UK have such a bad Covid-19 epidemic?
Jul 01, 2020
A new Covid-19 drug and a second wave
Jun 27, 2020
Child Poverty, School Inequality and a Second Wave
Jun 24, 2020
Who Should be Quarantined?
Jun 20, 2020
Quarantine, Test and Trace and BODMAS
Jun 17, 2020
Antibody tests, early lockdown advice and European deaths
Jun 10, 2020
Keep your distance
Jun 06, 2020
False negatives, testing capacity and pheasants
Jun 03, 2020
Obeying lockdown, flight arrivals and is this wave of the epidemic waning?
May 27, 2020
60 Harvests and statistically savvy parrots
May 23, 2020
School re-opening, Germany’s Covid-19 success and statistically savvy parrots
May 20, 2020
Social Distancing and Government Borrowing
May 16, 2020
Vitamin D, explaining R and the 2 metre rule
May 13, 2020
Covid-19 fatality rate
May 09, 2020
Testing truth, fatality rates, obesity risk and trampolines.
May 06, 2020
Climate change and birdsong
May 02, 2020
Ethnic minority deaths, climate change and lockdown
Apr 29, 2020
Comparing countries' coronavirus performance
Apr 25, 2020
Bonus Podcast: Professor John Horton Conway
Apr 23, 2020
Comparing countries, the risk to NHS staff, and birdsong
Apr 22, 2020
Superforecasting the Coronavirus
Apr 18, 2020
Should you wear a face mask?
Apr 11, 2020
Coronavirus deaths, face masks and a potential baby boom
Apr 08, 2020
Are more men dying from coronavirus?
Apr 04, 2020
Supermarket stockpiling, A-level results and Covid-19 gender disparity
Mar 31, 2020
The Risk
Mar 28, 2020
Coronavirus Special
Mar 25, 2020
Mitigation or Suppression: What’s best to tackle Coronavirus?
Mar 21, 2020
The mystery of Iran’s coronavirus numbers
Mar 14, 2020
How much heat do you lose from your head?
Mar 09, 2020
Netflix vs the environment
Feb 29, 2020
More or Less: Superforecasting, wood burning stoves and the real story of Hidden Figures
Feb 28, 2020
Artificial (not so) Intelligence
Feb 22, 2020
WS More or Less: Coronavirus - The Numbers
Feb 15, 2020
Coronavirus, jam, AI and tomatoes
Feb 14, 2020
WS More or Less: How fast are Alligators and Hippos?
Feb 08, 2020
Tracking terror suspects
Feb 07, 2020
WS More or Less: Coronavirus
Feb 01, 2020
Coronavirus, emotions and guns.
Jan 31, 2020
WS More or Less: Dozy Science
Jan 25, 2020
Netflix and Chill
Jan 24, 2020
WS More or Less: Japan’s 99% Conviction Rate
Jan 18, 2020
Weighing the Cost of Brexit
Jan 17, 2020
WS More or Less: Bushfire mystery
Jan 11, 2020
Australian Animal Deaths, Carbon Emissions, Election Mystery
Jan 10, 2020
C-sections and sharks
Jan 04, 2020
Presidential candidates and dementia
Dec 28, 2019
The Simpsons and maths
Dec 20, 2019
Koalas
Dec 13, 2019
Election Special (2/2)
Dec 10, 2019
Tree Planting Pledges
Dec 06, 2019
Election Special 1/2
Dec 03, 2019
Testing tomatoes
Nov 29, 2019
The world’s busiest shipping lanes
Nov 23, 2019
Bolivia: Can statistics help detect electoral fraud?
Nov 15, 2019
Reducing your risk of death
Nov 09, 2019
Unbelievable: The forgotten rape data
Nov 01, 2019
Edith Abbott and crime statistics
Oct 28, 2019
Esther Duflo and women in economics
Oct 18, 2019
The Extra Episode: Minimum wage, drinking in Scotland and identical twins.
Oct 11, 2019
WS More or Less: Does San Francisco have more rough sleepers than Britain?
Oct 07, 2019
New hospitals promised, aid to Ukraine, and bacon sandwiches
Oct 04, 2019