More or Less

Trump tells the Truth

04 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The fact-checkers have been working overtime looking into the numbers used by Donald Trump during his campaign to become President of the USA. In the ...

WS More or Less: Child Marriage, Dangerous Algorithms

28 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Is a girl under 15 married every seven seconds? And beware dangerous algorithms

WS More or Less: Escobar’s Cocaine Deaths

24 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How many people die for every kilo of cocaine? More Or Less investigates.

WS More or Less: Algorithms, Crime and Punishment

14 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When maths can get you locked up.

WS More or Less: The Sustainable Development Goals – are there just too many?

07 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It’s now a year since the UN set its new Sustainable Development Goals to try to make the world a better place. They include 17 goals and a massive ...

WS More or Less: Who Won the US Presidential Debate?

30 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Polling on the first TV debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump appears to be divided over who won it. But not all polls are equal. If the peo...

WS More or Less: Trump’s crime claims

23 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week Donald Trump claimed that there are some inner city areas in the US which are suffering from the worst crime rates ever. They are so dangero...

WS More or Less: Wedding gift economics

18 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Can economics help us work out the perfect amount to spend on a wedding gift? Our reporter Jordan Dunbar is in a tricky situation-he’s heading to an...

WS More or Less: Drug deaths in the Philippines

12 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last two months the Government in the Philippines has been encouraging the police to clampdown on the illegal drug trade. The new President, ...

WS More or Less: Menstrual Syncing

05 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It is a commonly held belief that if women spend enough time together, their bodies start to communicate through chemical signals, known as pheromones...

Irish Passports

02 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Britons entitled to Irish passports After the Brexit vote in June, so many Britons applied for Irish passports that Ireland’s foreign minister had t...

Death Penalty abolition

30 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Statistics suggest that officially about half of the countries in the world have abolished Capital Punishment, and a further 52 have stopped its use i...

Gender Pay Gap

26 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The “gender pay gap” This topic has been in the news this week after the Institute for Fiscal Studies published research showing women end up 33% ...

WS More or Less: Counting Terror Deaths

22 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

With high profile attacks in Brussels, Nice and Munich, you might think that 2016 has been a particularly bad year for terrorism in Europe. But what h...

Counting Terror Deaths

19 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Is 2016 an unusually deadly year for terrorism?In a joint investigation with BBC Newsbeat and BBC Monitoring, we’ve analysed nearly 25,000 news arti...

WS More or Less: Swimming World Records

15 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

World Records are being set at a much faster rate in swimming than in other sports. At the Rio Olympics, British swimmer Adam Peaty managed to break t...

Grammar Schools

12 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It has been reported that Prime Minister Theresa May is planning on lifting the ban on creating new grammar schools. Chris Cook, Policy Editor for New...

WS More or Less: Predicting Olympic Medals

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How can we use statistics to predict how many medals each nation will win? We speak to Dr Julia Bredtmann, an economist at the RWI Leibniz Institute f...

Plastic Bags

05 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Government says that since the introduction of the 5p fee for single use plastic bags their use has plummeted. We take a look at the numbers.Olymp...

WS More or Less: Odd Socks and Algorithms

01 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How can the techniques of computer science help us in everyday life? We speak to Brian Christian co-author of ‘Algorithms to Live by: The Computer S...

The Supermarket Effect

29 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Many news outlets have reported this week that a Waitrose supermarket pushes up house prices in the surrounding area. It’s based on research that al...

WS More or Less: Ireland’s Shock GDP figures

22 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Irish Central Statistics Office has released figures showing that Ireland’s economy grew by 26% in 2015. That would make it the fastest growing ...

WS More or Less: Violence, shootings and the police in the US

15 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Protests have spread across the United States over the last few weeks. The protestors have been registering their feelings about incidents where polic...

WS More or Less: Sleeping: the 8-hour myth

08 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It’s often said that we should all be aiming to get eight hours of sleep a night. But could it actually lead you to an early grave? Research shows t...

Ranking Iceland’s Football Team

01 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Is Iceland the best football team in the world per capita? England suffered a 2-1 defeat to Iceland in the European Football Championship in France. T...

WS More or Less: Brexit Economics

24 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Following a referendum, the UK has voted to leave the European Union. Tim Harford and the team explore what that might mean for the UK’s economy. Mo...

WS More or Less: When Companies Track Your Life

20 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How are companies using our personal data? It’s a familiar concern. Online retailers are tracking us so they can sell things to us. Bricks and morta...

The Referendum by Numbers: Trade

17 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If it seems the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this...

The Referendum by Numbers: Regulation

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If it seems the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this...

The Referendum by Numbers: Law

15 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If it seems the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this...

The Referendum by Numbers: Immigration

14 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If it seems the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this...

The Referendum by Numbers: The Cost of EU Membership

13 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this series,...

WS More or Less: Sexist Data Crisis

10 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There is a black hole in our knowledge of women and girls around the world. Campaigners say that they are often missing from official statistics and a...

WS More or Less: HIV in Africa

03 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The news aggregation website Zimbabwe Today recently ran a headline stating that 74% of African girls aged 15-24 are HIV positive. Although the statis...

WS More or Less: Refugee Camp Statistics

27 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What is the average length of stay in a refugee camp? It is regularly reported that it is 17 years but is this true? Floppy Disks This week’s shocki...

WS More or Less: The World's Most Profitable Product

20 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Recently one of our listeners contacted us to say he heard a BBC correspondent describe the iPhone as the most profitable product in history. It was j...

WS More or Less: The world’s most diverse city

13 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Is London the most diverse city in the world? The new London mayor Sadiq Khan has claimed that it is, but is he right? How is diversity measured? This...

WS More or Less: Leicester City football fluke?

09 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

At the beginning of the season of the English football Premier League, few people would have been brave enough to predict that Leicester City would fi...

The most profitable product in history

06 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Recently one of our listeners contacted us to say he heard a BBC correspondent describe the iPhone as the most profitable product in history. It was j...

WS More or Less: Simpson’s Paradox

02 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A Dutch statistician recently became suspicious by headlines in the Dutch news that women were being discriminated against when it came to getting sci...

EU Migration

29 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How many people have come from the EU to live in the UK? And what impact do they have on the economy? This week it was reported there had been an incr...

WS More or Less: Most Expensive Building

25 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What is the most expensive “object” ever built? There are plans in the UK to build a brand new nuclear power station called Hinckley Point. The en...

Brexit numbers

22 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

EU Treasury reportThis week there was much debate over the Treasury report which modelled how leaving the EU would affect the economy. Tim Harford spe...

WS More or Less: The life expectancy of a Pope

18 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Life expectancy of a PopeIn 2014 Pope Francis alluded to the fact he didn’t expect to live more than another two or three years. A group of statisti...

Celebrity deaths

15 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrity deathsA number of people have asked the team if more famous people have died this year compared to other years. It’s a hard one to measure...

WS More or Less: The story of average

11 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1600s astronomers were coming up with measurements to help sailors read their maps with a compass. But with all the observations of the skies t...

Fathers and babies

08 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Paternity Leave This week it was claimed that only 1 percent of men are taking up the option of shared parental leave – a new provision that came in...

WS More or Less: The Great EU Cabbage Myth

05 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Could there really be 26,911 words of European Union regulation dedicated to the sale of cabbage? This figure is often used by those arguing there is ...

The Great EU Cabbage Myth

04 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Could there really be 26,911 words of European Union regulation dedicated to the sale of cabbage? This figure is often used by those arguing there is ...

WSMoreOrLess: Safe drinking

24 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

New alcohol guidelines were issued recently in the UK which lowered the number of units recommended for safe drinking. But are the benefits and harms ...

WSMoreOrLess: Mobiles or lightbulbs

18 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Mobile technology is spreading fast in Africa, and one lawyer Gerald Abila has done the maths and worked out that there are more mobile phones than li...

WSMoreOrLess: Can we trust food surveys?

11 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Stories about what foods are good and bad for you, which foods are linked to cancer and which have beneficial qualities are always popular online and ...

WSMoreOrLess: Fact checking The Big Short

04 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

"Every one percent unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?" says Brad Pitt playing a former investment banker Ben Rickert, in the ...

WSMoreOrLess: Antibiotics and the problem of the broken market

26 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a life and death situation – the world is at its last line of defence against some pretty nasty bacteria and there are no new antibiotics. Bu...

WSMoreOrLess: When £10,000 isn’t a good incentive

19 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Could no prize have been a better way to motivate snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan?

WSMoreOrLess: Fishy numbers?

15 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There were reports recently that there will more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. The report comes from The Ellen MacArthur Foundation. But as ...

Selfies, sugar daddies and dodgy surveys

12 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Adverstising dressed up as research has inspired us this week. Firstly recent reports that said that young women aged between 16 and 25 spend five and...

WSMoreOrLess: Do e-cigarettes really harm your chances of quitting smoking?

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Research last month claimed to show that e-cigarettes harm your chances of quitting smoking. The paper got coverage world-wide but it also came in for...

E-cigarettes: Can They Help People Quit?

05 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Do e-cigarettes make quitting smoking more difficult? Research last month claimed to show that e-cigarettes harm your chances of quitting smoking. Th...

Swedish refugees

01 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Have refugees caused a gender imbalance in Sweden? It has been reported that there are 123 boys for every 100 girls aged between 16 and 17 in Sweden. ...

How harmful is alcohol?

29 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

New alcohol guidelines were issued recently which lowered the number of units recommended for safe drinking. But are the benefits and harms of alcohol...

WSMoreOrLess: Oxfam and Wealth Inequality

25 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

You may have seen the claim that ‘62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world’s population’. You may also have seen headlines that sug...

Billionaires versus the world

22 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Oxfam says that 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world’s population. But is this really telling us anything meaningful? And how is it...

WS MoreOrLess: Gravitational Waves

18 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

One of our 2015 ‘Numbers of the Year’ predictions might have come to pass. There is great excitement over rumours that one of the predictions Eins...

Weekend Stroke Deaths

15 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said this week that if you have a stroke at the weekends, you're 20% more likely to die. But is that true? We look at the...

WS MoreOrLess: Numbers of the Year 2015: Part Three

11 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What is preventing some Americans from being creative? And, how much money does the English Premier League contribute in tax? Tim Harford looks back o...

Flood Defence Spending

08 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Harford and the team take a look at some of the numbers in the news about flooding. What is a one hundred year flood? And is there really a north-...

WSMoreOrLess: Numbers of the Year 2015 Part 2

04 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How healthy is the Nigerian economy and how many possible tweets are there? Tim Harford looks back over some of the numbers that made the news in 2015...

Numbers of the Year 2015

01 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Harford looks back at some of the most interesting numbers behind the news in 2015, from the migrant crisis to social media messages. Contributor...

WS MoreOrLess: Numbers of the Year 2015 Part 1

25 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

How has the European migrant crisis affected the number of people seeking asylum? In this special programme Tim Harford looks back at some of the numb...

WS MoreOrLess: How Many Stormtroopers are there?

18 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Are Star Wars’ Stormtroopers the biggest secret army on Earth? Ruth Alexander investigates, and looks at some of the other numbers behind one of the...

WS MoreOrLess:100 Year Floods?

11 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Do so-called ‘100 year floods’ only happen once a century? Ruth Alexander and Wesley Stephenson investigate. Also, does the air in Beijing cause a...

WS MoreOrLess: Climate Change

08 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Alexander investigates claims climate change has contributed to the war in Syria, and with the climate change summit COP21 underway in Paris, we ...

WS MoreOrLess: '‘Sympathy’ for jihadis

27 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A front page article in a British tabloid claimed that one in five British Muslims have sympathy for jihadis. Ruth Alexander investigates whether this...

WS MoreOrLess: Has Islamic State been Losing Territory?

20 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Has so-called Islamic State been losing territory? Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has claimed IS have lost about 25-30% of their territory in ...

WS MoreOrLess: Creativity and Mental Illness

13 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Are creative people more likely to suffer mental illness, and has Cuba wiped out child hunger? Wesley Stephenson investigates.

WS MoreOrLess: China's One Child Policy

06 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

As China ends its one child rule what has been its impact on the country’s population? The More or Less team take a look at whether the policy on it...

WS MoreOrLess: Processed Meat and Cancer

30 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Are processed meats as cancer-causing as cigarettes, and has the Rugby world cup been the most brutal? Ruth Alexander investigates.

WS MoreOrLess: Oil

23 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said a million barrels of the country’s oil were stolen per day. Is he right? Ruth Alexander asks Peter Cunli...

WS MoreOrLess: Foreign Aid: More Harm Than Good?

16 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Harford interviews Nobel Prize winning economist professor Angus Deaton about a lifetime measuring inequality

WS MoreOrLess: Are Tall People More Likely to Get Cancer?

09 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Are tall people really more likely to get cancer? Ruth Alexander looks at a new Swedish study that’s caused headlines around the world, and asks how...

WS MoreOrLess: Football’s Red Card Cliché

02 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Managers and pundits often say “it’s harder to play against ten men”, but is there any truth in it? Also, Tim Harford speaks to the author Siobh...

WS MoreOrLess: How Reliable is Psychology Science?

28 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

How reliable is psychology science? The Reproducibility of Psychological Science project reported recently and it made grim reading. Having replicated...

Alzheimers, Psychology science, John Conway, Red cards, Decimate

25 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alzheimers What's behind the claim that 1 in 3 people born in the UK this year could get Alzheimers? How reliable is the science in psychology? The Re...

WS MoreOrLess: The Rise of the Giants?

21 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The average rugby pack is much bigger than it was 20 years ago but has the growth finally plateaued? Living Blue Planet Index Populations of marine ma...

Striking Numbers

18 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Striking numbers? Are the unions really on the rise again and holding the country to ransom?The rise of the giants Are rugby players really getting b...

WS MoreOrLess: How Many is Too Many Bananas?

14 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Too dense Is population density the right measure to be looking at when working out how many refugees countries should take- and if not what is? How m...

Is it worth targetting non-voters?

11 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Can you rely on non-voters During the election for the leadership of the Labour Party in the UK Jeremy Corbyn has whipped up unprecedented support am...

Queuing Backwards

07 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Queuing backwards Britons love to queue, but have we been getting it wrong? Lars Peter Osterdal from the University of Southern Denmark discusses his ...

Fit for work or at deaths door?

04 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Deaths of people 'fit for work' Thousands of people are dying after being declared 'fit for work' by the government according to the Guardian. The fi...

WS MoreOrLess: China Stock Market Crash

31 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The Chinese Market Crash in context. How big is the market, how many investors does it have and does it tell us anything about the wider Chinese econo...

China Stock Market Crash

28 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The Chinese Market Crash in context. How big is the market, how many investors does it have and does it tell us anything about the wider Chinese econ...

WS MoreOrLess: The Elliptical Pool Table

24 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Loop The ancient Greeks saw magic in the geometry of an ellipse and now mathematical writer Alex Bellos has put this to use in a specially designed t...

Soaring diabetes - is there some good news?

21 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Diabetes We heard earlier this week that there had been a 60% rise in the number of cases of diabetes in the last ten years. But is there actually so...

WS More or Less: Worm wars

17 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A debate has been raging over the last month about the benefits of mass deworming projects. Hugely popular with the UN and charities, the evidence beh...

Migrant Crisis

14 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Migrant Crisis There is a "swarm" of migrants coming into Europe according to the Prime Minister. Where are they coming from and how many are coming ...

WS More or Less: Wrestlers - dying too young?

07 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Following the recent death of wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper we ask if wrestlers are more likely to die young. We explore why that might be and how they...

WSMoreOrLess: Counting Foreign Fighters

31 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

It has been reported that as many as 20,000 foreign fighters have joined militants in the Middle East and that they make up around 10% of ISIS. Wesley...

WS MoreOrLess: Life Expectancy

24 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ruth Alexander and the team return to the question of how long you might live. Those born today are expected to live six and a half years longer than ...

WS MoreOrLess: Live 8, The G8 and Making Poverty History

17 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Its ten years since some of the world’s richest nations met in Gleneagles, Scotland. It was there that the G8 agreed to improve trade with developin...