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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

More or Less: Soviet World War Deaths

Factual

Russian infantrymen advancing in a sector on the front during the Great Patriotic War, circa 1942

13/12/2014

Soviet World War Deaths

BBC World Service - More or Less, Soviet World War Deaths

Did almost 80% of boys born in the Soviet Union in 1923 not survive World War Two?

Did almost 80% of boys born in the Soviet Union in 1923 not survive World War Two? And the problem with China’s economic figures.

Did almost 80% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 not survive World War Two, as has been claimed online? Ruth Alexander hears from professor Mike Haynes from the University of Wolverhampton and professor Mark Harrison of Warwick University.

Plus, the Chinese economy has overtaken the US to become the biggest in the world according to a recent IMF announcement. We hear from Matthew Crabbe, author of Myth Busting China’s Numbers, who explains the trouble with understanding and using China’s statistics.

(Image: Russian infantry men advancing. Credit: Three Lions/Getty Images)

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