Main content

Fact-checking US gun crime statistics

Tim Harford investigates gun crime statistics in the US. Plus, questioning the average age of first-time buyers, whether chocolate makes you clever and the maths of juggling.

The recent massacre at a school in the United States has re-opened the debate on gun ownership in the US. Tim Harford investigates whether the anti-gun statistics being widely shared on the internet stand up to scrutiny.

Whether you're looking at crime statistics or the effectiveness or hospitals, we've long argued on More or Less that death is the one hard fact that it's very hard to fudge. So imagine how surprised we are to find out it's not very reliable an outcome at all. At least not in England. Medical statistician Professor Sheila Bird tells Tim why she's concerned that the death register in England is causing delays for important health research.

Eating more chocolate improves a nation's chances of producing Nobel Prize winners - or at least that's what a recent study appears to suggest. But how much chocolate do Nobel laureates eat, and how could any such link be explained?

The average age of first-time buyers has been steadily climbing for years - it's not just government ministers who say this - everyone says it, everyone knows it. Apart from, More or Less discovers, the people who actually calculate the figure: the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Plus, the statistical paradox of road collisions caused by deer; and the mathematics of juggling, with Colin Wright.

Producer: Ruth Alexander.

Available now

25 minutes

Last on

Sun 23 Dec 2012 20:00

Broadcasts

  • Fri 21 Dec 2012 16:30
  • Sun 23 Dec 2012 20:00

Just how reliable is our intuition? Find out with The Open University

OU Connect: Put your brain to the test with our new mind-bending probability problems!

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Download this programme

Download this programme

Subscribe to the More or Less Podcast or download individual episodes.