More or Less: Behind the Stats
960 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago - ★★★★★ - 740 ratingsTim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
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Episodes
WS More or Less: Sperm - Are we going extinct?
September 25, 2017 12:55 - 9 minutes - 8.53 MBHow much of a problem is falling sperm count?
Statistics abuse, tuition fees and beer in 1887
September 22, 2017 17:10 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBForeign Secretary Boris Johnson is accused of mis-using official statistics.
WS More or Less: How to measure a Hurricane
September 15, 2017 21:55 - 9 minutes - 8.8 MBWhat’s the best way to measure a hurricane?
Are Natural Disasters on the Rise?
September 15, 2017 15:50 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBHas the number of natural disasters really quadrupled in the last forty years?
WS More or Less: More Horses than Tanks?
September 11, 2017 12:55 - 9 minutes - 8.38 MBIs the UK the only country with more horses than tanks in its army?
Electric cars, school-ready and feedback
September 08, 2017 16:58 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBWill we need more power stations? Plus, are children in Manchester ready for school?
One in 500 Year Storm
September 04, 2017 16:16 - 6 minutes - 6.24 MBExperts are saying that Houston just suffered a one in 500 year storm but what does that mean?
Grenfell Tower's Death Toll
September 01, 2017 16:53 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBThe difficulties of finding the true number of people who died in the fire.
Fantasy Football - How to win
August 28, 2017 12:55 - 10 minutes - 9.96 MBFiguring out the best strategy as a wannabe team manager.
A-levels, drowning and dress sizes
August 25, 2017 16:24 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBAre boys getting more top A Level grades than girls? Plus why are dress sizes so weird?
The Trump Bump
August 20, 2017 13:30 - 10 minutes - 9.43 MBDuring a recent press conference President Trump said: “I’ve created over a million jobs since I’m president. The country is booming. The stock market is setting records. We’ve got the highest employment numbers we have ever had I the history of our country.” This is not the first time the American President has taken credit for a booming economy. But is that fair? We take a look at the numbers.
Are there 15,000 transgender people serving in the US military?
August 14, 2017 12:55 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBPresident Trump says transgender individuals cannot serve, but how many do already?
Why is Kenya’s election so expensive?
August 07, 2017 12:55 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBOn Tuesday Kenyans go to the polls to elect members of parliament and the next president. A report in Quartz Africa has estimated that the cost of putting on the election by the Government works out at around $25 per head – $480 million in total. It also estimated that it cost Rwanda $1 a head, and Uganda $4 a head to lay on elections. Recently an expert on this programme estimated that the UK General election cost about $4 a head. We explore why there is such a difference in the amounts spe...
More boys than girls in Sweden?
July 31, 2017 12:55 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBExploring if an influx of teenage boys claiming asylum skewed the population’s sex ratio
Maryam Mirzakhani – A Genius of Maths
July 24, 2017 13:00 - 9 minutes - 8.64 MBCelebrating the only woman to win the biggest prize in mathematics.
Calling the shots at Wimbledon
July 17, 2017 08:47 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBUsing statistics to prove or disprove the wisdom of tennis is the theme this week. In this digital age we are used to information at our fingertips. This week More or Less finds out how every rally, every shot at this tennis championship is counted and makes its way to our phones, desktops and TV screens. And once you have this information – what can you do with it? Is it useful for players and coaches? Traditionally, players will take a risk on their first chance to serve, and hit the ball ...
Is Steph Curry cheap and how random is random?
July 10, 2017 13:00 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBAre top basketball players underpaid? The American basketballer Stephen Curry has just signed the biggest contract in NBA history. The new deal will pay him $200 million over 5 years but amazingly, according to fellow superstar player Lebron James, he’s probably being underpaid. It may sound ridiculous but economists agree. How can this be true? We look at the economics of superstar sports salaries. The mystery of Ryanair’s seat allocation Ryanair carries more international passengers a y...
In Search of Woodall Primes
June 30, 2017 22:00 - 20 minutes - 18.3 MBIt’s the 100 year centenary of an obscure type of prime number – the Woodall Primes. To celebrate, stand-up mathematician Matt Parker is calling on listeners to search for a new one. Ordinary citizens can already help search for Mersenne Prime numbers by lending computer processing power to GIMPS – the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. Matt explains to Tim Harford what a Woodall Prime is, and why it deserves more attention. Also - Making penalty shoot-outs fairer - 60% of penalty shoot-...
How rare are deadly tower block fires?
June 26, 2017 12:59 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBHow statistics can help us understand the tragic fire at London’s Grenfell Tower.
Trumpton Extra
June 21, 2017 16:21 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBThe Voice of 1960s British children’s TV series ‘Trumpton’, Brian Cant, died this week. The More or Less team has visited the town of Trumpton on a number of occasions so we have brought together a handful of our favourites as a tribute.
Post-Election Special
June 19, 2017 09:06 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBThe results of the general election are in - but what do they mean? Did more young people vote than expected? Have we now got a more diverse parliament? How many extra votes would Jeremy Corbyn have needed to become Prime Minister - these are just some of the claims and questions that have been floating around on social media and in the press. Tim Harford and the team are going to analyse, add context and try and find answers.
WS More or Less: Are African football players more likely to die on the field?
June 12, 2017 13:05 - 9 minutes - 8.64 MBCheick Tiote, the much loved former Newcastle United player collapsed and died while training with Chinese side Beijing Enterprises earlier this month. His death and that of other black footballers have caused some commentators to ask – are African or black players more likely to die while playing than other people? The data of footballers deaths is pretty poor but we try to glean some answers from the scant numbers available. It look like one of the most common causes of death among playe...
UK Election extra
June 07, 2017 16:54 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBThis podcast is a compilation of interviews by the More or Less team with Eddie Mair from Radio 4’s PM programme. Each interview features a different claim or hotly discussed topic from the UK general election campaign: from school funding, to numbers of armed police officers.
WS More or Less: Samba, strings and the story of HIV
June 05, 2017 13:05 - 9 minutes - 8.58 MBTrumpets are blasting in this week’s musical episode. But can medical statistics be transformed into a jazzy night out? That was the challenge which epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani set for composer Tony Haynes. This June, his Grand Union Orchestra will be performing Song of Contagion, an evening of steel pans, saxophones and singers telling the story of diseases including Zika and AIDs. We met Elizabeth and Tony in an East London music studio, to hear Song of Contagion come together for the...
Election Special: Tax, borders and climate
June 02, 2017 18:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBOn this final programme of the series we try to give some context to some of the issues that are being discussed during the current election campaign. Who pays tax? What proportion of adults are paying income tax? How much are they paying? Where does the highest burden lay? We take a look. Also, we look at the different political parties’ tax policies. This includes corporation tax, but what about National Insurance? How do you cut migration? The Conservative manifesto again includes the...
WS More or Less: Have 65% of future jobs not yet been invented?
May 28, 2017 22:36 - 9 minutes - 8.35 MBOur entire education system is faulty, claim experts. They worry that schools don’t prepare kids for the world outside. But how could anyone prove what the future will be like? We set off on a round-the-world sleuthing trip to trace a statistic that has been causing headaches for students, teachers and politicians alike. Helping us on our quest are educators Cathy Davidson, Daisy Christodoulou and Andrew Old – plus a little bit of Blade Runner and a lot data-wrangling. Producer: Hannah San...
Spies, care homes, and ending sneak peeks
May 26, 2017 17:39 - 23 minutes - 22 MBCan security services follow everyone known to them? The attack on Manchester Arena took place exactly four years since the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich. Back in 2013 we broadcast an interview with the former Head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimmington, about the difficulties of monitoring people who have been flagged up to the services. We are re-visiting that interview. Chances of ending up in a care home There are around 11.6 million people over the age of 65 in the UK, but how man...
WS More or Less: Uganda’s refugees
May 22, 2017 14:30 - 9 minutes - 8.53 MBHas Uganda been accepting more refugees on a daily basis than some European countries manage in an entire year? That is the claim from the Norwegian Refugee Council – and it is a claim we put to the test. Civil war and famine in South Sudan have forced millions to leave their homes, and this has had a colossal impact on neighbouring Uganda. We speak to Gopolang Makou, a researcher at Africa Check who has some startling figures to share. (Photo: Children wait as WFP, 'World Food Programme' ...
Tax, speed dating and sea ice
May 19, 2017 21:02 - 24 minutes - 22 MBExploring the Labour manifesto's tax plans for high earners.
Nurses' pay, Scottish seats, Penalty shootouts
May 13, 2017 12:35 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBWhat is happening to nurses pay? Amid reports of nurses using food banks, Jeremy Hunt said he doesn’t recognise claims their wages are worth less now than in 2010. He says nurses are actually paid £31,000 - more than the average person. If he’s right, why do so many nurses say they’re earning much less than that? The Great Scottish Election Conspiracy The reporting of the Scottish council elections has caused a bit of a stir. Did the SNP lose seven seats or gain six. The media including t...
WS More or Less: Is my Baby a Giant?
May 12, 2017 23:00 - 9 minutes - 8.64 MBAll over the world mothers are given numbers as their baby grows. The numbers are from ‘growth charts’ showing how a baby is developing in comparison to others. Seven month old Baby Arlo has particularly big numbers, so much so that his parents are worried he’s one of the biggest babies in America. But where do these numbers come from? Is it an average? Why do they measure a baby’s head? Reporter Jordan Dunbar sets out to find out how we get these baby numbers and just how big Baby Arlo is. ...
WS More or Less: An urban maze
May 08, 2017 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.74 MBWhy some parts of town are hard to navigate.
Is Crime Rising?
May 05, 2017 17:16 - 24 minutes - 22 MBIt looks like homicides are on the rise - but better check the footnotes
WS More or Less: The Maths of Dating
May 01, 2017 11:00 - 9 minutes - 8.48 MBHow to use mathematics to find your partner. And, how reliable are pregnancy due dates?
Fact-checking Boris Johnson
April 28, 2017 21:00 - 28 minutes - 25.7 MBGiant bombs, a war hero and the foreign secretary's stats.
WS More or Less:The death rate of white Americans – What’s going on?
April 21, 2017 22:05 - 9 minutes - 8.54 MBAre middle-aged white Americans dying younger than other groups?
WS More or Less: The death rate of white Americans – What’s going on?
April 21, 2017 22:05 - 9 minutes - 8.54 MBAre middle-aged white Americans dying younger than other groups?
Living standards and Kate Bush maths
April 21, 2017 21:00 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBAre people's incomes falling? Plus singing Pi like Kate Bush
WS More or Less: The Ignorance Test
April 14, 2017 22:15 - 9 minutes - 8.42 MBHow much do you know about the world?
Economics of Overbooking
April 14, 2017 16:30 - 24 minutes - 22 MBWhy airlines bet that not everybody will turn up for a flight.
WS More or Less: Could North Korea Wipe out 90% of Americans?
April 10, 2017 09:20 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBA single nuclear weapon could destroy America’s entire electrical grid, claims a former head of the CIA. The explosion would send out an electromagnetic pulse – resulting in famine, societal collapse and what one newspaper has called a “Dark Apocalypse”. But are hungry squirrels a greater threat to the electrical grid than North Korean weapons? We speak to senior security adviser Sharon Burke and Yoni Applebaum from The Atlantic. Presenter: Charlotte McDonald Producer: Hannah Sander
WS More or Less: Will one in four people develop a mental health problem?
March 31, 2017 22:04 - 9 minutes - 8.26 MBThe claim that “one in four” of us will suffer from a mental health problem is popular amongst campaigners, politicians and the media. But this leads you to a simple question – where is this figure from and what’s the evidence? This was exactly what neuroscientist Jamie Horder asked, and far from being simple, it led him on quite a journey. So do we really know how many people are likely to develop mental health problems – Elizabeth Cassin and Charlotte McDonald find out. Presenter: Charlot...
WS More Or Less: Baby Boxes – are they really saving infant’s lives?
March 24, 2017 20:10 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBEver since a BBC article highlighted the use of baby boxes in Finland they have become a bit of a phenomenon. They’re not new though Finland has been doing this for 75 years. The simple cardboard boxes are given to families for their new born babies to sleep in. Since their introduction cot death and has fallen and child health improved. Governments and individuals across the world have adopted them and companies have sprung up selling them. But think about for minute – can a cardboard box o...
More or Less: The concrete facts about Trump’s wall and China
March 17, 2017 20:00 - 9 minutes - 8.27 MBDid China use more concrete in three years than the US in the 20th Century?
WS More or Less: The Attention Span of a Goldfish
March 10, 2017 19:55 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBAre our attention spans now shorter than a goldfish's?
WS More or Less: Why are Hollywood actresses paid less than men?
March 03, 2017 20:00 - 8 minutes - 8.22 MBTop Hollywood actresses have complained that they are paid less than their male co-stars
WS More or Less: What happened last night in Sweden?
February 24, 2017 20:00 - 9 minutes - 8.29 MBWhat happened last night in Sweden?
Hidden Figures: The Real Story
February 17, 2017 21:00 - 9 minutes - 8.29 MBHidden Figures, the film, has been nominated for three awards at the Oscars and has been a box office hit in the US. It tells the little-known story of a group of African American women and their contribution to the space race in the 50s and 60s. We explore the history of how these women were recruited by Nasa and put to work on complex mathematical tasks – at a time when African Americans and women were far less likely to be employed in such jobs. (Photo: Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Joh...
WS More or Less: Hans Rosling - the extraordinary life of a statistical guru
February 13, 2017 00:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBA huge hole was left in the world this week with the death of the Swedish statistician Han Rosling. He was a master communicator whose captivating presentations on global development were watched by millions. He had the ear of those with power and influence. His friend Bill Gates said Hans ‘brought data to life and helped the world see the human progress it often overlooked’. In a world that often looks at the bad news coming out of the developing world, Rosling was determined to spread the ...
WS More or Less: Is democracy failing in America?
February 03, 2017 20:00 - 8 minutes - 8.21 MBDoes North Carolina really rank alongside North Korea if you measure electoral integrity