Awards for Statistical Excellence in Journalism
We established our awards for statistical excellence in journalism in 2007 to encourage excellence in journalists’ use of statistics and data. The awards have previously been scooped by reporters from the BBC, Channel 4 News, Mail on Sunday and the Financial Times and celebrate the great strides that have been made in journalists' use of numbers to tell a story.
The awards are kindly sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Read about the 2024 winners.
Criteria
The awards are open to all journalists (and non-journalists for the best statistical commentary category), including those based outside the UK and are for work completed in the previous calendar year.
Categories
The categories are as follows:
- Data visualisation – stories which include data visualisation to aid explanation of the statistics being presented
- Explaining the facts – stories which take a current issue or statistic already published and enable greater public understanding through effective explanation
- Investigative journalism – stories which include previously unpublished statistics either through unpublished data that have been sourced and analysed by the journalist or new analyses of existing data
- Best statistical commentary by a non-journalist – this is awarded for an outstanding example of statistical analysis or explanation on a topical issue, aimed at a non-specialist audience.
The 2025 award will open for entries in the new year
Previous award winners