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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life

Tim Harford explains - and sometimes debunks - the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life

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More or Less: The Week That Kills

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The Week That Kills

10/01/2014

BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, The Week That Kills

Tim Harford tries to find out why this is the week of the year in which most deaths occur.

Tim Harford on why this is the week in which the most deaths occur. Plus a look at how many millionaire pensioners there are, and how many people have died in Iraq since 2003?

Tim Harford tries to find out why this is the week of the year in which most deaths occur. It's often thought that the spike in so-called 'excess' winter deaths is caused at least in part by the fact that some people living in poverty can't afford to turn up the central heating when freezing weather sets in. But Tim discovers the picture is much more complicated than that. He goes through the data with Claudia Wells from the Office for National Statistics, and Professor Rachel Vreeman of the Indiana University School of Medicine in the United States.

Are there really two million millionaire pensioners in the UK? The Intergenerational Foundation says two million over 60-year-olds are living in "millionaire households" and, it argues, don't need their pensions protected by the government. Tim looks into the numbers.

Estimates of the death count in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003 range from 100,000 to one million. Tim explores why such a range exists and what methods are used to count those killed during war. And he discovers why the death count hasn't stopped Iraq's population growing by almost a third in that time. He speaks to Glen Rangwala from Cambridge University and Patrick Gerland from the UN's demographics team.

And after last week's abject apology from mathematician and comedian, Matt Parker, he is back to apologise for that apology. This time Tim makes him answer for the unforgiveable comments he made about the nautical mile.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Ruth Alexander.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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