About this episode
Tim Harford investigates the accuracy of various claims related to refugees and crime statistics, among other topics.
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 proportion of sex offences in Dorset that are committed by asylum seekers, writing that “asylum seekers make up 0.8% of Dorset’s population and 44% of alleged sex offenses. So unbelievable I had to check.” We checked too, and the number isn’t right. In the last series of More or Less we suggested that nuclear power plant Hinkley C was spending so much on protecting the fish population that it would cost something like £250,000 per fish saved. We’ve had to take a look at that one too. Last year, we looked at a report by the Bible Society based on polling from YouGov. The Quiet Revival suggested that churchgoing was on the rise in the UK, with young men leading the trend. YouGov now have an update on that survey. How many caterpillars does a blue tit chick eat before it leaves the nest? In a recent nature documentary, Sir David Attenborough said the right number was 20,000. We’re not so sure. If you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at, email the more or Less team: moreorless@bbc.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS: Madeleine…
People in this episode
Host: Tim Harford
Guests: Madeleine Sumption, Professor David Voas, Annette Jäckle
Topics covered
- refugees
- crime statistics
- asylum seekers
- polling data
- nature documentary
- church attendance
Keywords
- refugees
- crime
- asylum seekers
- Dorset
- YouGov
- polling
- Hinkley C
- nature documentary
- caterpillars
- churchgoing
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Migration Observatory, YouGov
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