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Fact-checking the leaders' debate, tax evasion savings and the weight of ants Read more
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Debate, Reform, tax evasion and ants
Fact-checking the leaders' debate, tax evasion savings and the weight of ants
Why medical error is not the third leading cause of death in the US
Investigating how many deaths are caused by mistakes by doctors and nurses
Leaflets, taxes, oil workers and classrooms
We look at bad graphs, oil rig extrapolations and pupil populations
Shakespeare’s maths
Author Rob Eastaway on the numbers in Shakespeare’s writing
Worse mortgages, better readers, and potholes on the moon
We check some of the numbers that are flying about in the election campaign
Do ‘pig butchering’ cyber scams make as much as half Cambodia’s GDP?
We investigate the money made by an international cybercrime operation
Election claims and erection claims
What did Liz Truss do to mortgage rates? Do erections use a litre of blood?
How a tick box doubled the US maternal mortality rates.
We investigate changes to the way the US gathers their maternal mortality statistics
Election endings, tennis and meeting men in finance
Exit polls, election claims, and a 54% chance of winning a point in tennis
The magic of trigonometry
Tim Harford interviews Matt Parker on his latest book ‘Love Triangle’
Federer’s 54%: Tennis stats explained
How Federer became the best in the world winning just over half the points he played
Is increasing turbulence making flying more dangerous?
Exploring the link between bumpy flights and climate change
Are women 14 times more likely to die in natural disasters?
We unpick the idea that women outnumber men by 14 to 1 as casualties of natural disasters
Does a language die every two weeks?
Languages are disappearing. We investigate claims of how often this happens.
Is planet Earth getting greener?
Jordan Peterson says Earth has greened by 20% in 20 years. Is he right?
Are companies making more money from their customers?
We investigate claims mark-ups are larger than ever
Do we eat a credit card's worth of microplastic each week?
We look at whether humans really ingest five grams of microplastic on a weekly basis
Where have Cuba’s people gone?
We investigate the collapse in the Caribbean island’s population
Exclusions, black holes and dividing by zero
Plus special educational needs in Wales and Ghanian nurses in the UK
Who pays when trade wars heat up?
We look at Donald Trump’s claim that tariffs are a tax on other countries
How long does it take to turn around an oil tanker?
Plus, Migrants vs Pensioners and Ed Miliband’s energy auction claim
Nate Silver: Do risk-takers run the world?
Poker player and polling analyst Nate Silver on his new book
How do you count millionaires?
Plus, asylum seeker costs, private school bets and Baumol's cost disease
Do 85% of the world’s population practice a religion?
Counting religions across the globe – is the world getting more religious or less?
Could the winter fuel cut cost more than it saves?
Plus, ONS transgender stats, early-onset cancer, and puzzles you’re meant to get wrong
The puzzles you’re meant to get wrong
Alex Bellos sets Tim Harford logical conundrums designed to deceive
How do you breed seventeen octillion rats?
Plus, GPs working less, the UK working less, and Wetherspoons wanting to pay less tax.
Are 672 billion pounds of corn eaten in the US every year?
A lot of corn is eaten in the United States, but is it really 2.5kg per person per day?
Should the government target persnuffle?
Plus, childhood obesity, birds hitting windows and Sir David Spiegelhalter’s origin story.
Uncertainty, probability and double yoked eggs
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter on his new book, The Art of Uncertainty
When are numbers like a horse at a gymkhana?
Plus: the taxes of 60 very rich people, water bill spreadsheets, and is 0 a small number?
