Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

We've just published Housing in London 2025, our annual statistical summary of more or less everything that's happened in London housing. It's brilliant and you should read it (most of the work was done by colleagues, so it's not egotistical for me to say so). data.london.gov.uk/housing/hous...

Some of these are upsettingly far away, but still! ☀️

Courage comes in many forms. The bystander at Bondi beach is one example. This piece recounts an extraordinary different kind, where by having a conversation and listening, Nathan Newby talked Mohammad Farooq down from setting off a bomb. Recommend www.ft.com/content/cd59...

The Commons Library is recruiting a housing policy researcher! As ever: highly recommended workplace, great people, interesting work, etc etc. Apply! housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

Entertaining myself with the definition of 'pet' being inserted by the Renters Rights Act 2025. Probably should add: '(e) Fear of retribution from the animal if otherwise' to cover most cats

Excited to be starting a secondment at the Greater London Authority next week, covering as best I can for @geographyjim.bsky.social in the realm of housing data and analysis!

Most of us are in a wobbly position when it comes to our understanding of immigration numbers. How would things go if we didn’t make these half-remembered statistics so central to how we form and articulate opinions? georginasturge.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

Why are we hooked on bad vibes when they don't reflect reality? I took a deep-dive into the data, in search of what is really going on. open.substack.com/pub/georgina...

Oh, bugger. I mean, 97 is a bloody good innings, but the world is a sadder place with no Tom Lehrer in it. What a brilliant man

I've published a new briefing bringing together the stats on leasehold housing in England (and a bit in Wales). Featuring: - MHCLG data on leasehold stock - Trends in transactions over time and for constituencies - Experiences of leaseholders commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

2031 census confirmed! 🎉 "Today HM Government has commissioned the Office for National Statistics to conduct a mandatory, questionnaire-based, whole-population census of England and Wales in 2031." www.ons.gov.uk/news/news/hm...

okay but be fair the British meaning of "billion" has changed within living memory, books I had as a kid in the 80s sometimes still used the word "milliard" for 10^6 and saved "billion" for 10^9

Heading home after a trip to Edinburgh for IPVIS, a tiny conference for data nerds working in parliaments. It's great to have a space to talk to people with the same weirdly specific job as me. Everyone had lots to say about the nuts and bolts of what we do, and how we try to do things better.

Now that the 2031 census recommendation is here, it feels like I've done a full "census cycle" as a professional census nerd. It's a brilliant part of my job, being paid to pay attention to something that's ever-changing and the setting for so many interesting debates about identity and society.

A cool resource, literally❄️

Just had a v interesting couple of days at the @ukdataservice.bsky.social UK Census User Conference - hearing from ONS and others about future plans, and from researchers about how they're using 2021/2 census data. Official recommendation on the 2031 census due next week, apparently 👀

Great opportunity for anyone with knowledge and experience of UK transport policy - a chance to work in the wonderful House of Commons Library, providing briefings to MPs. housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

A bit of census news from the Spending Review:

Sum of US is out now!! Find it at all good bookshops and online 🙌

Ahead of the recall of parliament my colleague Ilze has published a briefing on the UK steel industry. Impressive work commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

What do you think about double council tax for holiday homes and other empty property? Here's some factual detail about how the new second home premium works in England: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/why-am-i-pay... And....

On the topic of the Bank Holidays API, it may well be the most quintessentially British API in existence, with a boolean (true/false) value for "bunting". And, in case you were wondering, every bank holiday is a good day for bunting unless someone died for our sins! www.api.gov.uk/gds/bank-hol...

🚨 Dream job alert! 🚨 Senior Researcher in statistics (my team) at the House of Commons Library. The team is looking for someone with numeracy skills & research experience. Good communication skills also required. Deadline 31 March 2025. housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

Applications are still open for a Senior Researcher role in the Social & General Statistics team in the Commons Library. Come and work with us to analyse data, explain it to MPs and their staff, and support parliament's work 📊 housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

We in the House of Commons Library are recruiting a senior researcher in our Social and General Statistics team! Come work with us to develop new and improved ways to inform MPs and their staff about data. housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

great story via @nickevershed.bsky.social and The Crunch in which 8yo Emma Glenfield uncovers the motives of 'a bad and dangerous magpie called Mr Swoopsalot' and charts attack targets using lego because she doesn't know how to use excel. tldr: bad luck if you're a tall, bald man who hates magpies

English cows go “moo”, while French cows go “meuh”, and Korean cows go “음메”. Our newest project takes a look at how animal sounds translate across languages and cultures. pudding.cool/2025/03/lang...

Rough sleeping in England - Causes and statistics https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10173/

Here's an overview of women's employment, pay and participation in business in the UK, for all your International Women's Day needs: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

There's no way "over half of Gen Z want a dictator" - our new study gets more like 6% This is vital to get right - we're sowing generational division, giving fake momentum to the sense that young people are rejecting democracy + missing the real message theconversation.com/only-6-of-ge...

How do constituencies with different demographics vote? I've updated this interactive I made a few years ago with data for current constituencies, and the 2024 general election. Explore patterns by age, housing tenure, household type and more: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/census-data-...

How do constituencies with different demographics vote? I've updated this interactive I made a few years ago with data for current constituencies, and the 2024 general election. Explore patterns by age, housing tenure, household type and more: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/census-data-...

And a paper for fans of historical marriage data *and* historical MP data. The paper concludes "a woman’s marriage to a commoner reduced her blood relatives’ probability to be elected MP in the following years."

Dishonest charts are coming from all directions, and they're only going to hit harder. Unless we push back. So, an interactive guide: Defense Against Dishonest Charts flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

Things I want to know after playing around with other countries' data: - Why did twin births peak in the mid-2010s in so many places? - Why has Japan had so few twins historically? - What's up with the Chilean Twin Spike of 1983?

There's a Westminster Hall debate on 'housing targets in rural areas' this week. We've published a debate pack with background on the targets, and analysis of the distribution of indicative housing need between rural and urban areas 👇

I enjoyed attending the first UK Statistics Assembly with colleagues yesterday. A full-on day of stats opinions that I'm still digesting! We don't always get to talk to other stats users much, so it was reassuring to hear that lots of other users have the same experiences and concerns as we do.

Looking for information about your constituency? The Commons Library can help. Get the facts on key data for your local area, including population, house prices and broadband speeds. 🔎Explore now: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency...

There are big differences in the age of local populations across the country. The oldest parts of the country are generally rural and coastal areas, while cities, particularly those with large universities, are significantly younger. Read more➡️ https://buff.ly/4h3zaSB

Campop blog #28: Recently, Boxing Day has had fewer births than any other day of the year. Today's blog explores the seasonality of births & marriages since 1540, and the changing influences of work, religion, holidays and taxation @camunicampop.bsky.social www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2024/12...

This month I've been collaging a weird little guy for each day, in an attempt to stave off midwinter madness. Not sure if it worked, but here are some of my favourites.

Constituency data - Pension Credit claimants https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-pension-credit-claimants/

There are still a few (free!) tickets left for the UK Statistics Assembly in January. Hope to see lots of like-minded stats people there. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/uk-statist...

I always find Spotify Wrapped kind of embarrassing. Partly because I have to read sentences like this, and know that I brought them on myself...

Every year I also show them my personal favorite data viz about bananas:

Today the GLA published its annual ‘Housing in London’ report data.london.gov.uk/housing/hous.... It has 70 pages of analysis and data visualisations and I think you should read the whole thing, but here is a thread with some of the key findings.

I think the main thing these kinds of findings show is how hard it is to get survey respondents to focus on "how much?" questions, without their answers drifting into "which things do I think are most disproportionate?" or "which things have caught my attention most?"

New constituency data dashboard update! Find census data on how many households in your constituency were single people, families with children, older people and more. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constitunecy...

The Commons Library briefing on the Renters' Rights Bill has been published - second reading scheduled for next week commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...