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BBC Radio 4


Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4


More or Less: Behind the Stats

When World War Two came to Greece, a period of terrible human suffering followed. There was a brutal battle with Italian and then Nazi forces, followed by an occupation in which thousands were executed and a terrible famine swept the nation. 

There’s an often repeated number that appears to capture the brutality of this time – that 10% of the Greek population died during the war. 

We investigate where this statistic comes from and whether it is true. 

Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound mix: Neil Churchill 
Editor: Richard Vadon

Did one in 10 Greeks die in World War Two?

Are most Americans barely holding their head above water when it comes to personal finances?
 
That’s what various US politicians and news outlets keep suggesting. 
 
They can’t stop using a statistic about people living “paycheck to paycheck”. 
 
But what does this really mean? 

We go behind the headlines to unpick the numbers.
 
Contributor: 
Ben Krauss, journalist 
 
Presenter: Charlotte McDonald
Producer: Vicky Baker and Lizzy McNeill
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Sound Engineer: Andrew Mills
Editor: Richard Vadon

How many Americans live ‘paycheck to paycheck’?

“Say what you like about Mussolini but he did make the trains run on time.” This phrase is the political equivalent of “every cloud has a silver lining” – but does it have any factual basis? 
 
Mussolini’s dictatorship in Italy was full of atrocities, brutal suppression and propaganda. Did it also create a more efficient railway network? 
 
We speak to Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat about the truth of the claim and why the Mussolini regime wanted us to believe it. 
 
 
Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Researcher: Esme Winterbotham
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Sound Master: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison.

Image: Benito Mussolini in his train studying maps. (Photo by ullstein picture/ullstein picture via Getty Images)

Did Mussolini make the trains run on time?

How reliable are life expectancy figures? Can cycling ever be safer than driving? And, what can maths tell us about guerilla insurgencies?

03 Sep 2010

More or Less looks at how maths is taught in schools today and it asks what the population of the world be if WWI had never happened.

Back to school

Who earns more: private or public employees? And are your trousers flattering you?

Who earns more?

Tim Harford and the More or Less team examine more numbers in the news.
This week: Claiming benefits has been described by the Chancellor as - for some - a "lifestyle choice". What does the evidence tell us about how incentives work in the welfare system?; The numbers of some of Britain's best-loved birds are declining. Fast. Many think cats are to blame. Are they right?; Why the Prime Minister's salary has become a convenient unit of measurement; And we bring you the results of our mathematical attempt to level the playing field at this year's Great North Run half marathon.

How welfare works

Tim Harford and the More or Less team examine the micromort measure of risk and official statistics on sexual identity.

Gay Britain

We look at the numbers behind the increase in the cap on undergraduate tuition fees in England. Are the changes fair and progressive? Are they dropping future students into a deep hole of debt? Or are they both?

Degrees of Debt

Local government budgets are being cut. More or Less looks at how the pie is sliced and finds everything depends on Wokingham (yes, really). Plus: we take a look at inflation and consult the magic More or Less monkey.

03 Sep 2010

03 Sep 2010

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