More or Less

Numbers of the year part 2

04 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We asked and you responded, this edition of ‘numbers of the year’ are from you. our loyal listeners. We scoured the inboxes to find three fascinat...

Numbers of the year 2024

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s that time of year again, the time when we ask some of our favourite statistically-inclined people for their numbers of the year. We present th...

Did Mussolini make the trains run on time?

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“Say what you like about Mussolini but he did make the trains run on time.” This phrase is the political equivalent of “every cloud has a silver...

How many Americans live ‘paycheck to paycheck’?

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are most Americans barely holding their head above water when it comes to personal finances? That’s what various US politicians and news outlets k...

Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?

07 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When World War Two came to Greece, a period of terrible human suffering followed. There was a brutal battle with Italian and then Nazi forces, followe...

Can Elon Musk save the US Government $2 trillion?

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

President Elect Donald Trump has created a new government advisory group – the Department of Government Efficiency or ‘DOGE’ - to help cut the U...

Do fossil fuels get $7 trillion in subsidies?

23 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Governments around the world have promised to fight climate change. But are they also pumping an absolutely massive amount of money into subsidies for...

Did 20 million votes really go missing in the US election?

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just hours after Donald Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election, rumours started swirling that something was afoot. A graph went viral ...

Do we have enough clothes for the next six generations?

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A huge quantity of clothing is produced every year around the world. But is so much made that there are already enough tops, trousers, skirts and all ...

What can economics learn from sport?

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The great theories of economics seem to have great explanatory power, but the actual world is often far too complicated and messy to fully test them o...

Are older drivers more dangerous?

30 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Could the cut in winter fuel payments cost thousands of lives? Is it really true that criminals sentenced to three years will be out of prison in two ...

Is Trump right about violent crime in Venezuela and the US?

26 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the campaign trail for the US presidency, former president Donald Trump has been saying that the US is becoming a more dangerous than Venezuela.He ...

Do US crime statistics miss out the most violent cities?

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was an MP wrong about the number of people who pay capital gains tax?Why is 2% the magic number for the rate of inflation?Donald Trump says US crime f...

Nobel prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The question of why some countries are rich and some poor has been described as the most important question in economics. Perhaps that is why the Roya...

When are numbers like a horse at a gymkhana?

16 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can we teach BBC political editor Chris Mason some new maths skills? Do 60 of the UK’s richest people pay 100% tax? Have water bills fallen in real ...

Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter is one of the great communicators of probability and uncertainty. His new book, The Art of Uncertainty, explains how...

Should the government target persnuffle?

09 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are childhood obesity rates going down? Do 35 million birds die every year in the UK after hitting windows? How much money could the Chancellor find...

Are 672 billion pounds of corn eaten in the US every year?

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

National Geographic magazine recently wrote that “people in the United States eat more than 672 billion pounds of corn per year, which breaks down t...

How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are GPs really working less hours per week? Does Wetherspoons really pay one in every £1000 of tax in the UK? Are more people in the UK economically ...

The puzzles you’re meant to get wrong

28 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do some puzzles make us immediately leap to the wrong conclusion?That’s the subject of Alex Bellos’ new book Think Twice, which has page after...

Could the winter fuel cut cost more than it saves?

25 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The government is encouraging pensioners to claim pension credit in order to remain eligible for winter fuel payments. Will people sign up - and might...

Do 85% of the world’s population practice a religion?

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We don’t usually do god on More or Less, but one listener got in touch to ask us to investigate a stat used by an Anglican priest on a BBC radio pro...

How do you count millionaires?

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can we be sure that thousands of millionaires are leaving the UK? How much do asylum seekers cost the state? Who will win a geeky bet on private schoo...

Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Big stakes poker player and elections analyst Nate Silver is no stranger to a calculated risk. In his new book, On The Edge, he makes the case that pe...

How long does it take to turn around an oil tanker?

11 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do illegal migrants receive more in benefits than pensioners? Was Energy Secretary Ed Miliband right to celebrate a “record breaking” renewable en...

Who pays when trade wars heat up?

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump wants new tariffs on goods coming into the US, describing them as a tax on other countries. The Democrats are no stranger to trade tariff...

Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do half of children in Wales have special educational needs? Are permanent exclusions at the highest ever level in England? Labour are talking about a...

Where have Cuba’s people gone?

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Cuban government has announced that their population has fallen by 10% in two years – just days after a demographer on the Caribbean island sugg...

Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?

24 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The claim we all swallow 5.5 grams of microplastic each week – the same as the weight of a credit card – has been repeated by charities, newspape...

Are companies making more money from their customers?

17 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recent reports claimed the average global mark-up, the difference between the price of production and the price that product is sold for, rose from 7%...

Is planet Earth getting greener?

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Canadian psychologist and culture war commentator Jordan Peterson says planet Earth has got 20% greener in the last 20 years. But satellite data tells...

Does a language die every two weeks?

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers have catalogued 7,164 languages spoken around the world - some are used daily by billions. Half are spoken by less than 8000 people. The d...

Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters has been repeated in newspapers and online for years - the UN have eve...

Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is climate change making turbulence more dangerous for people taking flights around the world? That’s what one listener asked, following a terrifyin...

Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How can tennis star Roger Federer have won only 54% of the points he played, but been the best player in the world? Jeff Sackmann, the tennis stats ...

The magic of trigonometry

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You might have found it boring in school maths classes, but Matt Parker thinks we should all learn to love trigonometry. The ‘Love Triangle’ autho...

Election endings, tennis and meeting men in finance

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are Labour right about employment? Are the Conservatives right about cutting NHS managers? Are the Lib Dems right about share buyback? Are Reform UK r...

How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

he US has been portrayed as in the grip of a maternal mortality crisis. In contrast to most other developed nations, the rate of maternal deaths in ...

Election claims and erection claims

26 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are Labour right about the Liz Truss effect on mortgages? Are the Conservatives right about pensioners? Are Plaid Cymru right about spending? Are the ...

Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?

22 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

So-called “pig butchering” scams take billions of dollars from people around the globe. But do the cyber scams run from compounds in Cambodia re...

Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Will Conservative policies raise mortgages by £4800, as Labour claim? Are primary school kids in England the best readers in the (western) world, as ...

Shakespeare’s maths

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

AWilliam Shakespeare might well rank as the most influential writer in the English language. But it seems he also had a knack for numbers. Rob Eastawa...

Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What’s going on with the dodgy bar charts that political parties put on constituency campaign leaflets?What’s the truth about tax promises?Are 100...

Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US

08 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The claim that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the US has been zooming around the internet for years. This would mean that only h...

Debate, Reform, tax evasion and ants

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Were there any suspicious claims in the election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer?Do the claims in Reform UK’s policy documents on excess...

Data for India

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

India’s election has been running since 19 April. With results imminent on 4th June, More or Less talks with Chennai based data communicator Rukmini...

UK growth, prisons and Swiftonomics

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK economy is growing faster than Germany, France and the US, while Labour says the typical household in ...

Is intermittent fasting going to kill you?

25 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

News stories earlier in the year appeared to suggest that time restricted eating – where you consume all your meals in an 8 hour time window – was...

MP misconduct, NHS waiting lists and gold (gold)

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is it going to take 685 years to clear NHS waiting lists in England?Are 10 per cent of MPs under investigation for sexual misconduct?How does gold eff...

Are falling marriage rates causing happiness to fall in the US?

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s long been known that marriage is associated with happiness in survey data. But are falling marriage rates in the US dragging down the mood of t...

Is reading for pleasure the single biggest factor in how well a child does in life?

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If a child loves reading, how big a difference does that make to their future success? In a much-repeated claim, often sourced to a 2002 OECD report, ...

Do one in five young Americans think the holocaust is a myth?

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Polling by YouGov made headlines around the world when it suggested 20% of young adults in the US thought the holocaust was a myth.But polling experts...

Has Milei fixed Argentina’s inflation problem?

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Libertarian populist Javier Milei won the presidential election in Argentina on a promise austerity and economic “shock” measures for the ailing e...

98%: Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Cass Review is an independent report on the state of gender identity services for under-18s in England’s NHS.It found children had been let dow...

Tackling The Three-Body Problem

13 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Netflix has a big new show named after and inspired by a classic problem in astrophysics, 'The Three Body Problem', where predicting the course and or...

Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking?

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is loneliness as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes per day? That’s the claim circulating on social media.We trace this stat back to its source an...

Remembering Daniel Kahneman

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning behavioural economist and More or Less hero, has died at the age of 90. Tim Harford explains his ideas and inf...

Bonus episode: Daniel Kahneman on Thinking, Fast and Slow

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an episode of More or Less from 2012, Daniel Kahneman – the Nobel prize-winning behavioural economist who has died at the age of 90 – explains ...

What's happening to Arctic ice?

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The area of ice covering the Arctic ocean has been in a state of long decline, as climate change takes effect. But recent fluctuations in the ice have...

Does the Russian government really spend 40% of its budget on the military?

16 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

According to the head of the British military, the Russian government spends 40% of its budget on its war machine. But is it true? With the help of...

Is public speaking really our biggest fear?

09 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For over 50 years it’s been widely reported that speaking before a group is people’s number one fear. But is it really true? With the help of Dr...

Ultramarathons: Are women faster than men?

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As running races get longer, the gap between male and female competitors seems to close. Tim Harford and Lucy Proctor investigate the claim that when ...

School spending, excess deaths and billions of animals at Heathrow

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is school funding at record levels as the education secretary claimed? Why did the ONS change how they measure excess deaths? Is there a shoplifting e...

NBA basketball: Is height more important than skill?

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the NBA, the US professional basketball league, the average player is a shade over 6ft 6 inches tall. So just how much does being very tall increas...

Per capita GDP, MP claims and the entire EU budget

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does per capita GDP tell us about the UK economy? Did the government spend £94bn helping with rising energy prices? Was Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg righ...

The digital ‘robots’ unlocking medical data

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Big medical datasets pose a serious problem. Thousands of patients’ health records are an enormous risk to personal privacy. But they also contain a...

Debt, students, shark and chips

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the government’s fiscal rule on the national debt? Are international students stealing places from the UK’s young people? How much social ...

The global gender split in young people’s politics

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a surprising new trend, young men and women around the world are dividing by gender on their politics and ideologies. Whilst young women are becomi...

Council tax weirdness: Hartlepool vs Westminster

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do you really pay more in council tax on a semi in Hartlepool than a mansion in Westminster? How do the Office for National Statistics work out how mu...

A pocket-size history of the calculator

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How was the calculator invented? How did it go from something the size of a table to something that could be carried in your pocket, the must-have ga...

Measles, Traitors and the cost of Brexit

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was there really a 5% measles vaccination rate in Birmingham? Has Brexit already cost 6% of the UKs economy? For how long has crime been falling? And ...

Is Oxfam right about the world’s richest and poorest people?

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We investigate Oxfam’s claim that “since 2020, the five richest men in the world have seen their fortunes more than double, while almost five bill...

Shopping, shipping and wind chill-ing

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves wrong about the increase in the price of the weekly shop? What has the violence at sea done to the cost of ...

Are there more possible games of chess than atoms in the universe?

20 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We investigate how the vast possibilities in a game of chess compare to the vastness of the observable universe.Dr James Grime helps us understand the...

Life expectancy, inheritance tax and the NHS vs winter

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles through a double wave of Covid and flu infections.We report on the state of the NHS as it struggles ...

Do we see 10,000 adverts per day?

13 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How many adverts does the average person see in a day? If you search for this question online, the surprising answer is that we might see thousands –...

Deaths, taxes and missing cats

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Did London see a 2500% increase in gun crime? Are taxes in the UK the highest since the 1950s? Did the UK have high excess deaths from Covid, compared...

How much money do the ‘Ndrangheta mafia make?

06 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The ‘Ndrangheta are one of Italy’s biggest and most dangerous criminal gangs. One piece of research suggested they have an annual turnover of €5...

Numbers of the year 2023

30 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Each year we ask some of our favourite statistically-minded people for their numbers of the year. Here they are - from the population of India to the ...

Can chocolate be better than salad?

23 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We investigate a nutritional conundrum –can chocolate ever be better for you than salad? Today we dive in to one of our listener’s family debates ...

China’s missing numbers

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How many young people are unemployed? How much debt does the government owe? How many people have died from Covid? These are questions that many gover...

Does endurance sport harm your heart?

09 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Exercise is good for you in all kinds of ways, there is no medicine like it to prevent a whole range of illnesses. But for some endurance athletes, ex...

Will there be a billion climate refugees?

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Vice President Al Gore has said that climate change is predicted to lead to a billion climate refugees. But where do these predictions come fro...

A boy meets girl meets stats story

25 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Veronica Carlin is a data scientist who loves romantic comedies. But she had a hunch about those movies, that there aren’t many women like her, wome...

Are women in the UK the biggest binge drinkers in the world?

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We check out suspect stats on boozing Brits and fishy figures on fishing fleets in the South China Sea.With the help of Professor John Holmes from the...

Can maths prove the existence of aliens?

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are we alone in the universe – and if not, how many other civilisations might there be? Remarkable images and data sent back to Earth by the James W...

Do Indian women own 11% of the world’s gold?

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The cultural importance of gold in India as a symbol of wealth, prosperity and safety is well known – but how much do Indians actually own? Reporter...

The Overlooked Mathematicians of History

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conventional histories of mathematics are dominated by well-known names like Pythagoras, Leibniz or Newton. But to concentrate solely on figures from ...

What do windscreen splats tell us about insect decline?

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you notice fewer insect splats on windscreens than you used to? There’s a study in the UK trying to measure this ‘windscreen phenomenon’, as ...

Greedy jobs and the gender pay gap

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Harvard professor Claudia Goldin has become only the third woman to win the Nobel Economics Prize for her groundbreaking research on women’s employm...

Are half the words in English from French?

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are almost half the words in the English language of French origin? It’s a claim one of our loyal listeners found surprising. Tim Harford talks to D...

Vaccine claims, Alzheimer's treatment and Tim's Parkrun times

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Campbell, a YouTuber whose posts get millions of views, has made claims about excess deaths and the Covid vaccine. We show why he's incorrect. Al...

Is the UK really ahead in cutting carbon emissions?

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The UK Prime Minister has announced several changes to key policies designed to help Britain reach net zero by 2050. In a major speech justifying what...

NHS consultant pay, Net Zero claims and Scotland's ferry woes

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

NHS consultants in England are striking over a pay offer of 6%. We look at whether they are paid an average of £120,000 a year and examine how much t...

Which city has the longest canals?

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a listener emailed More or Less to ask whether world famous Venice or the slightly less famous English city of Birmingham has more canals, Danie...

Social housing, NHS workforce and Liz Truss debt claims

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long: Housing minister Rachel Maclean claimed the government has built a record number of social rent homes. Tim and the team investigate. Following L...

How to approach the world through numbers

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can we navigate our lives in a more efficient and satisfactory way? It’s a question Professor David Sumpter is looking to answer in his new book...

Skin cancer, London rents and your great great great granddaughter

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A BBC report quoted a study that said 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women in the UK will get skin cancer in their lifetime. Tim Harford and the team look into...

Did 35,000 Americans die building the Panama Canal?

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The construction of the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America is considered one of the greatest engineering fea...

Covid deaths, North Sea gas and Chloe Kelly's World Cup penalty

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Covid related deaths are rising in England and Wales - but what do the figures really tell us? Also the UK's GDP during the pandemic has been revised ...