The Royal Statistical Society has revealed its ‘statistics of the year’ for 2019, with the winning UK statistic relating to the extent of in-work poverty in the UK.
The statistic from the Institute for Fiscal Studies relates to the proportion of those in relative poverty who live in a working household – which is as high as 58 percent.
The judging panel chose this figure as it highlights the ‘growth of in-work poverty and the need to rise to fresh welfare challenges’.
The international winner was named as the new estimated global average for life expectancy at birth in 2019 – 72.6 years, a new record high.
Taking ‘highly commended’ spots, meanwhile, were the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the change in sugar content of soft drinks and the fall in child mortality rates.
The proportion of those in relative poverty who live in a working household is now at 58 per cent, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) says it looks for ‘insightful statistics that capture the overall spirit’ of the year.
And the winning UK statistic – which the IFS based on Department for Work and Pensions data – highlights one of the biggest issues the UK currently faces, it says.
‘While it could be seen as positive that more people are in work, this figure shows that employment doesn’t necessarily mean an escape from poverty – far from it, in fact,’ said Kelly Beaver of market research company Ipsos MORI and member of the judging panel.
‘Policymakers have focused on work as the best route out of poverty, but our winning statistic shows that this will not be enough to eradicate the scourge of poverty in the UK,’ said RSS executive director Hetan Shah.
While the number of households in which none of the inhabitants worked has declined since the 1990s, in-work poverty has become a new and important challenge as we enter a new decade.
The last 20 years has seen a shift in the UK from poverty being largely seen as problem affecting the unemployed, to one that affects working households too, thanks to a rise in living costs compared to income.
Figures from the Social Metrics Commission show 49 per cent of those in poverty are in persistent poverty – meaning that they are in poverty now and have been for at least two of the previous three years.
The winner of the international statistic of the year was provided by Oxford-based research organisation Our World in Data.
The group found that life expectancy has risen from 45.7 years in 1950 to 72.6 years today – or 20.3 weeks per year since 1950, on average.
The RSS panel said it chose this statistic because much reporting on life expectancy has focused on the stalling or declining of the figure, even in countries such as the UK and the US.
‘This statistic is powerful in that it paints the bigger picture – while much focus has been on life expectancy in specific countries, many may have missed the more positive news that life expectancy across the world has steadily improved to reach a record high,’ said panel member Sir David Spiegelhalter.
Figures published in September 2019 by Public Health England show that the average sugar content in soft drinks decreased by nearly 30 per cent from 2015, due to the ‘sugar levy’
Among the the highly-commended UK statistics of the year was the change in the average sugar content of soft drinks following the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (-28.8 per cent) provided by Public Health England.
This decrease from levels in 2015 far exceeds the progress made in other food and drinks categories where a voluntary approach to cutting sugar has been adopted by manufacturers, including breakfast cereals.
Also highly commended was the percentage of electric and hybrid car models that account for new vehicle registrations in the UK, at 10.3 per cent – an increase from 6.8 per cent in November 2018.
The stat was provided by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, who also revealed a 22 per cent year-on-year fall in diesel registrations, which can partly be attributed to the emissions scandal.
Electric and hybrid models now account for more than one in 10 new vehicle registrations in the UK, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
In the highly commended international category was the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as measured in May 2019 at the Mauna Lao Observatory in Hawaii – 415.26 parts per million.
‘To me, this statistic is as important as it is terrifying,’ said environmental statistician and member of the judging panel, Professor Roland Geyer.
‘This data, also known as the Keeling Curve, is statistics at its best and has been the main driver behind climate change science and policy.’
Also featured in the ‘international commended’ category was under-five child mortality rates globally since 1990 (54 per 1,000), which was based on World Health Organisation figures, and the proportion of women car passengers wearing seatbelts that are more likely to be seriously injured in frontal car crashes than men (73 per cent).
This statistic, from a 2019 study by researchers at the University of Virginia, has been highlighted by author Criado Perez, who argues that women are at a greater risk of serious injury because cars have been designed using crash test dummies based on the average male anatomy.
The RSS will be announcing its Statistics of the Decade (2010-2019) next week.