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Why is data so important in determining how we live?

Tim Harford investigates how good policies depend on the availability of reliable statistics

Why are good data so important to policymakers around the world – whether they know it or not – and what happens when the data available is bad or even missing?

Presenter Tim Harford speaks to Georgina Sturge, a statistician at the House of Commons library in London and the author of Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers.

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Jon Bithrey

(Photo: Data analyst using a dashboard with charts, metrics and KPI to analyse performance and create insight reports. Credit: Getty Images)

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9 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Sat 10 Dec 202205:50GMT
  • Sat 10 Dec 202222:50GMT
  • Sun 11 Dec 202200:50GMT
  • Sun 11 Dec 202214:50GMT
  • Sun 11 Dec 202222:50GMT
  • Mon 12 Dec 202200:50GMT
  • Mon 12 Dec 202210:50GMT

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