Did Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres stop disinformation bots?
Last week, Ukraine launched drone attacks against three data centres owned by Russian tech giant Yandex. After these attacks Yandex announce...
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More or Less: Behind the Stats
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Episodes
20 of 1,148 episodesFact-check: Will Scottish pensioners really be funding English social care?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:40) First Minister John Swinney has claimed that Scottish pensioner...
Fact-check: Is China missing a billion people?
A viral video circulating online claims the population of China is actually a billion people lower than the UN and China say. A billion is b...
Is the UK state pension really the lowest in Europe?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:42) Is the UK uniquely miserly when it comes to the state pension?...
The Uzbekistan-shaped hole in an influential climate cost paper
How much could climate change cost the global economy? That would be a very useful thing to know, and scientists have developed statistical...
Does the UK really have nine out of the ten poorest regions in Northern Europe?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:40) Does the UK account for nine out of ten of the poorest regions...
Trump fact-check: Do the US and Venezuela have 60% of the world’s oil?
US president Donald Trump has claimed in a speech to the UN that the US and Venezuela combined now have 60% of the world’s oil. 100% of the...
Has the UK’s productivity puzzle been solved?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:42) Frustrated economists have been left rending their garments and...
Are carrots becoming less nutritious?
Are fruit and vegetables less nutritious than they used to be? And is declining soil quality to blame? Loyal listener Sarah got in touch to...
Are bad teeth the number one reason kids go to A&E?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:33) Are crumbling teeth the number one reason children attend A&E?...
Could this be the strongest El Niño in 1,000 Years?
Every year, climate scientists keep a close eye on data coming out of a particular area of the Pacific Ocean. They’re trying to measure the...
Why are so many ex-prisoners being sent back to prison?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: (00:38) The number of people being recalled to prison after early relea...
Is every card shuffle unique?
Can it really be true that every shuffle of a deck of cards is unique? Mathematician and stand-up comedian Matt Parker claims that every tim...
Bonus podcast: Norman Numbers
What's this, an extra podcast? Has Christmas come early? No, the Bayeux Tapestry has instead returned to England for the first time in almos...
Do Germans really take 19.5 days of sick leave per year?
How do different countries compare, in terms of the amount of time that workers take as sick leave? Loyal listener Dave got in touch to ask...
How much of the world isn’t owned by anyone?
Sometimes world events of massive practical significance lead our minds towards some lovely impractical thoughts. So it was for loyal listen...
14 million deaths or zero deaths? The impact of the USAID cuts
As part of their mandate to stop 'waste, fraud and abuse' in federal government spending, DOGE, the department of Government Efficiency, mad...
How much of all the money in the world does Elon Musk have?
Earlier this year, South African-born tech tycoon Elon Musk briefly became the world’s first dollar trillionaire. This prompted loyal listen...
Would you take £50,000 or a 50/50 chance of £1m?
If you had a choice between instantly receiving £50,000 or a 50% chance to win £1m, which would you pick? When YouGov asked exactly that que...
The mistake in Trump’s tariff formula
What is the error in the calculation Donald Trump used to work out his new tariffs? What happened when the government ordered a recount of b...