Robert Cuffe
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robertcuffe.bsky.social
Robert Cuffe
@robertcuffe.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.4K following 33 posts
BBC News’s statistician. Number nerd 24-7-365.2425
Posts Replies Media Videos
robertcuffe.bsky.social
The LFS may have its failings, but it still beats opt-in data on faith among young adults.

pewrsr.ch/4bbNh8N
Has there been a Christian revival among young adults in the U.K.? Recent surveys may be misleading
Despite the widely recognized decline of Christianity in the U.K., there have been persistent rumblings of a Christian resurgence.
pewrsr.ch
January 27, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
duncanlamont2.bsky.social
VAT banter. Niche audience but I’m in that niche so I’m here for it

@louisashworth.bsky.social
January 24, 2026 at 9:52 AM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Solar's not the biggest renewable in Britain but it drove last year's rise to record renewable generation.

From @beckydale.bsky.social @markpoynting.bsky.social & Jess Carr's

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
January 13, 2026 at 12:42 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Has anyone seen a good stats analysis of The Traitors?
January 7, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
statsepi.bsky.social
‪It has a name now 😜

Many thanks to Ken for agreeing to put his good name to my...artwork. The image is in the public domain (CC 0), but citations to the linked documents are warmly welcomed.

✅ zenodo.org/records/1808...

✅ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24452418/
Figure 1: The Rothman-Dahly Evidence Pyramid (original version) An equilateral triangle with a small blue section labelled "Thoughtful, well-conducted studies of any design" at the top, with the remaining space colored red and labelled "The other shit"
December 29, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
dingdingpeng.the100.ci
You remember that Nature Aging paper about how multilingualism protects against accelerated aging? Well…
December 17, 2025 at 7:15 AM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
40k small boat crossings so far this year is
- second highest on record
- less than half of asylum claims*
- about 5% of immigration*

*July '24 - June '25, latest figs

More on BBC's migration tracker: bit.ly/4rVv595
December 15, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
gilesyb.bsky.social
*The truth is that a huge pessimistic bias in our national accounts has led us to be fed with contemporary reports of doom and gloom, which subsequently turn out to be nonsense"
. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @chrisgiles.ft.com
The UK economy is not nearly as bad as you’ve been told
A huge pessimistic bias in our national accounts leads us to doom and gloom which turns out to be nonsense
giftarticle.ft.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:18 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Record* life expectancy for women in the UK.

*by 0.01 years.
December 10, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
cassierbarton.bsky.social
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/...
Housing Researcher - Houses of Parliament
Title: Housing Researcher. Employer: House of Commons. Salary: £43,614 - £50,374 per annum. Closes: 11/01/2026, 23:55
housesofparliament.tal.net
December 9, 2025 at 7:23 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Record low murder rate in England and Wales
November 10, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
darrenmacey.bsky.social
We would love to hear your thoughts on our new set of maths teaching resources, developed in partnership with @mathsweek.scot
Please share widely! @robertcuffe.bsky.social @rssedinburgh.bsky.social @rss-teach.bsky.social #MathsWeekScot
Stats in the Wild - Maths Week Scotland
This set of bespoke evidence-based resources are for exploring statistics using outdoor maths.
mathsweek.scot
September 14, 2025 at 8:26 AM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Surely should be a portrait of Notey McNoteface?

British Bulldogs to Basil Fawlty - your banknote redesign ideas www.bbc.com/news/article...
Your banknote redesign ideas - from British Bulldogs to Basil Fawlty
The Bank of England wants views on themes for its next series of banknotes, and BBC readers are full of ideas.
www.bbc.com
July 4, 2025 at 1:34 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Strong +1. Civil service statisticians made excellent technical contributions to recent UK Statistics Assembly.
instituteforgovernment.org.uk Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · Jun 26
The government should not ban public servants from speaking in public

A private instruction that prevents government officials from speaking at public events is counter-productive. It will lead to a more closed government and less effective policy www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove...
The government should not ban public servants from speaking in public | Institute for Government
New guidance will damage the quality of government and public discourse.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
June 27, 2025 at 7:37 AM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
UK's data agency has 'deep seated' issues, review finds

ONS will reallocate ~10m worth of FTE to fix core econ stats
National Stato job will be split into two: technical + running org
Govt will look at the legislation defining roles and governance of UK stats

www.bbc.com/news/article...
June 26, 2025 at 6:32 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Among the new BBC editorial guidelines taking effect in September is an expanded chapter on stats, data, polls and surveys

www.bbc.co.uk/editorialgui...
Section 11: Statistics, Data, Polls and Surveys
Sections 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3
www.bbc.co.uk
June 24, 2025 at 10:17 AM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Trump announces 20% ‘reciprocal’ tariffs for EU. 10% for UK.
April 2, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
statspeter.bsky.social
Our complaint re the growth in health benefits has been upheld: osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/corresponden...: "The statement that the number of people claiming disability elements of Universal Credit has increased by 383% presents an entirely misleading picture to the public."
April 1, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
mattashby.com
The head of Amnesty International UK claims in this Guardian article that "The evidence that [predictive policing] keeps us safe just isn’t there". But that's simply not true.

Let's look at what the best-available evidence on predictive policing shows …

🧵

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
UK use of predictive policing is racist and should be banned, says Amnesty
Exclusive: rights group says use of algorithms and data reinforces discrimination in UK policing
www.theguardian.com
February 20, 2025 at 2:10 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Pretty poor stats from UK Home Office yesterday.
Firstly, misleading to say 19k people were removed. Most "returns" (this stat) are people who left voluntarily, most often those who left of their own accord and whose departure the Home Office only discovered later when (e.g.) checking visa data.
Home Office Tweet. Text says "Through our Plan for Change, we have removed almost 19,000 people including failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and immigration offenders from the UK since July 2024." Screengrab of Home Office stats showing that the single largest category of returns are "other verified returns": people who left the country of their own accord and whose departure was discovered later by the Home Office.
February 11, 2025 at 4:48 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
school absence fines (mainly for unauthorised holidays) up by a quarter to record levels.

explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statist...
The number of penalty notices issued to parents for taking their children on family holidays has hit a record high, according to figures released today by the Department for Education. There were just over 443,000 penalty notices issued for unauthorised family holidays in the 2023/24 academic year, up by a quarter on the previous year and the highest number since records began in 2009/10. This has pushed the total number of penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence in the same academic year to 487,344, an increase of 22% from the previous year and also the highest number since records began in 2009/10. Penalty notices are issued to parents for failing to ensure that their child attends school. In 2023/24 they were for £60 if paid within 21 days of receipt rising to £120 if paid after 21 days. If the penalty is not paid within 28 days, the local authority must either prosecute for the original offence or withdraw the notice.
January 30, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
ourworldindata.org
The world has probably passed “peak air pollution”
The image shows a series of six line graphs depicting the trends in global emissions of different pollutants from 1750 to 2022. The title reads "The world has passed 'peak pollution'," indicating that emissions of several pollutants have declined since their peak levels, except for ammonia. The pollutants shown are: - Sulphur dioxide (SO₂) – peaked in the mid-20th century and has since declined. - Nitrogen oxide (NOx) – followed a similar pattern, peaking around the late 20th century and then dropping. - Carbon monoxide (CO) – peaked mid-20th century and declined. - Black carbon (BC) – shows a rise until recently, followed by a drop. - Organic carbon (OC) – has risen steadily with a recent plateau. - Ammonia (NH₃) – continues to rise without a recent decline.
January 28, 2025 at 7:09 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Another record low in planning applications submitted and decided in England.

www.gov.uk/government/s...
Line chart showing the number of planning applications received, granted and decided in England. All three have been trending down fairly steadily in recent years.
January 16, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Robert Cuffe
edconway.bsky.social
🚨How worried should Rachel Reeves be about rising bond yields?
😨How worried should the rest of us be?
😱And is this a repeat of 2022 (or even worse)?
After all, UK 30yr govt bond yields are now at the HIGHEST level in more than a quarter century.
📽️My 4min explainer👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mDx...
Long-term borrowing costs hit new high | Ed Conway analysis
YouTube video by Sky News
www.youtube.com
January 8, 2025 at 5:45 PM
robertcuffe.bsky.social
Here's what happened to the price of government borrowing in the week of the mini-Budget. The BoE announcement had an effect. So did the mini-Budget. So did Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng saying there was "more to come" that weekend.
Line chart showing the cost of UK government bonds in the week around the Truss/Kwarteng mini-Budget. After months of steady, gentle rises, rates picked up sharply on Thursday after the Bank of England announced interest rates. They then picked up sharply again on Friday after the mini-Budget and again by more on the Monday morning when markets opened.
January 9, 2025 at 12:01 PM