More or Less was broadcast on Tuesday, 18 March, 2003 at 1600 GMT on BBC Radio 4.

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In New York, it's said, you're more likely to be struck by lightning than find a man.

Urban myth, or evidence of a real problem?

More or Less looked at what the statistics tell us about the balance between men and women at different ages and found out if women are more likely to be on their own.

We spoke to Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council and to Zoe Williams of The Guardian.

Plus, the rise or fall of poverty. As new figures come out showing the proportion of Britons who are poor, we looked at how we measure poverty.

More or Less asked who are we to believe: those who claim first hand experience or those who appeal to statistics?

We heard from:

Bernard Kops, writer;
Steven Webb, Liberal Democrat Social Security spokesman;
Nick Buck, principal investigator for the British household panel survey;
and Polly Toynbee of The Guardian.

As MPs vote on war with Iraq, we spoke to John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, about what the numbers might mean for Tony Blair.

And finally, as the Cricket World Cup nears its conclusion we looked at the fiendishly difficult mathematical problem of ranking cricketers with the help of the cricket enthusiasts Rob Eastaway, and Richard Harris.