More or Less: Behind the Stats
Detalls del Canal
More or Less: Behind the Stats
Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
Episodis Recents
1099 episodis
Andrew Ross Sorkin: What can the Great Crash of 1929 tell us about today?
The Great Crash of 1929 has faded into history, but financial journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin argues it holds vital lessons for today.
Education, Education, Education (and immigration)
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
(00:32) The internet is abuzz with the claim that twenty-seven young migran...
Factchecking claims that 400 churches were burned to the ground in France
In certain corners of the internet some suspicious numbers are cropping up again and again. People claiming that 400 churches have been burnt to the g...
Debunking the claim that migrants will get half of new homes
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
The Daily Express claims that ‘Migrants will get half of all new homes’, ba...
The known unknowns of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
On the 17th of May the World Health Organisation declared a new outbreak of Ebolavirus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an International Eme...
Does a fall in the UK's healthy life expectancy mean what you think it means?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Headlines have claimed that “healthy life expectancy” in the UK has fallen...
Is the ‘loneliness epidemic’ real?
What does it mean if you say that something is an epidemic? In the case of a virus, it usually means that it is spreading rapidly and that more and mo...
Are refugees more likely to commit crime?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. On the programme:
Last week, Annunziata Rees-Mogg took to X to post a claim about the...
Erdos Problem 1196: Can AI now solve maths that no human can?
It’s said that AI could soon be coming for the jobs of artists, lawyers, and software engineers. But it might now also be threatening a role at the he...
Why it’s wrong to say vaping is as bad for you as smoking
According to the World Health organisation, smoking kills some 7 million people every year. It is one of the world’s leading causes of preventable dea...
Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?
If you spend much time on social media, and we don’t necessarily recommend it, then you’ve probably come across a strange fascination with water consu...
Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?
Vaccine policy in the US is something of an ideological battleground.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is a vaccine sceptic, and since taki...
Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?
US president Donald Trump is no fan of wind turbines, or windmills as he calls them.
Not only does he think they ruin the view from a golf cours...
Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep
Sometimes it is obvious to everyone when an idea is harmful, or a piece of advice is damaging. But not always. Occasionally bad ideas and terrible adv...
How likely is ‘likely’?
When you’re listening to the news, you will often hear words that are meant to communicate the probability of something happening.
A ter...
How much water does AI consume?
As Artificial Intelligence continues to expand rapidly, some people have raised concerns about its potential environmental impact - in particular its...
Paul Ehrlich: The man who bet England wouldn’t exist by the year 2000
Paul Ehrlich’s bestselling book The Population Bomb opens with an apocalyptic paragraph.
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over,” it state...
Transgender women in sport: Does ‘comparable’ mean ‘equal’?
In most sports, men compete against men and women compete against women. That is generally considered fair, because men are faster, more powerful and...
US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?
On Saturday 28th February, the US and Israel launched a military attack on Iran, targeting the country's missile infrastructure, military sites and le...
Has a company really discovered a million new species?
Have a million new species just been discovered?
That’s the claim made by Dr Oliver Vince, co-founder of a company called Basecamp Research, who...
Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?
AI can make mistakes – and AI chatbots like ChatGPT warn you about that whenever you ask them anything.
These mistakes sometimes involve making...
Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time?
Modern sport can seem awash with money, but it’s been claimed that the richest sportsperson of all is an ancient Roman Charioteer from the second cent...
Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?
Chelsea striker Liam Delap has recently stunned fans on Instagram by apparently doing incredibly complicated calculations in his head, finding what’s...
Could Europe use its financial muscle to strong-arm the US?
Could European Nato members use their large holdings of US shares and bonds to put pressure on America? It’s a question that some in Europe found the...
Can you get £71,000 on benefits?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more mone...
Is Greenland as big as Africa?
The vast island of Greenland has found itself at the centre of a geopolitical crisis. But a little bit of geography can help us see the situation in a...
How close is Greenland to the United States?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
How far away is Greenland from the United States? We check a number From O...
No, a study has not shown that the covid jab causes cancer
In Autumn 2025 a paper in South Korea was published that excited many a vaccine sceptic online. The paper claimed that receiving a vaccination against...
Have more than 100 private schools been forced to close because of VAT?
Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: A headline in the Mail says more than 100 private schools have closed since Labou...
Does Venezuela really have the biggest oil reserves in the world?
When people think of oil rich nations their mind generally goes to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the US.
But according to international statistics, th...
The Stats of the Nation: Immigration, benefits and inequality
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a ser...
The Stats of the Nation: Older people, education, prisons and the weather
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a ser...
The Stats of the Nation: Sex, drugs and empty homes
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a ser...
The Stats of the Nation: Health
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a ser...
The Stats of the Nation: The Economy
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a ser...
Numbers of the year 2026
From record-breaking passenger numbers, to some more record-breaking numbers - courtesy of the Men’s football World Cup. We look forward to what 2026...
Numbers of the year 2025
From the number of women in space and transistors on a chip to social media usage -we’re taking a look back the key numerical moments of 2025. We expl...
Numbers of the year 2025
We look back at some stand out numbers of 2025. How significant were Trump’s import tariffs? China sets the pace for solar power installation across t...
Were there really Three Wise Men?
The surprising things we learn when we count everyone - a tour of the UK census through time.
We also figure out just how many parking officers...
The shocking world of US health costs
A loyal listener wrote in to question this claim made by neuroscientist Dr Daniel Levitin: "Here in the US valium in a pharmacy might be $3 that same...