We're very pleased to be launching the second ‘Statistic of the Year’ for 2018 to find out which statistic best captures 2018 so far.
Last year’s winning and highly commended statistics were on topics such as causes of death (from terrorist attacks compared to lawnmower fatalities) in the USA, declining teenage pregnancy rates, the amount of 'concrete jungle' in the UK and the number of active phone connections worldwide.
The judging panel is chaired by RSS president Sir David Spiegelhalter, who says: 'We had a very eclectic and enlightening list of winning and highly commended statistics last year, when we first launched this initiative. For Statistic of the Year 2018, I hope we’ll be able to announce an even more wide-ranging set of statistics which will encapsulate some of the big issues of the year, showing how powerful and insightful statistics can be.'
As well as Sir David, the other judging panel members will be:
- Mark Easton – BBC News
- Dr Liberty Vittert - University of Glasgow
- Mona Chalabi – Guardian US
- Dame Jil Matheson – Former National Statistician
- Professor Diane Coyle – University of Cambridge
- Ben Page – Ipsos MORI
- Dr Jennifer Rogers – University of Oxford
- Gemma Tetlow – Institute for Government
This year, we are hoping to commend an even broader range of interesting and insightful statistics, which will be unveiled in December, but we need plenty of nominations! For details on the criteria and how to nominate please visit rss.org.uk/statoftheyear. You can also follow the hashtag #StatoftheYear on social media to see what other people are nominating.