Thank you for downloading more or less from the BBC.

This is the version of the programme first broadcast on Radio 4,

on Friday 7 June 2013. Here's Tim Halford.

Hello and welcome to more or less,

sliding the statistical master key into the great mortis lock of life.

This week, the statistics of pregnancy,

of having three pairs of twins,

and of course, of what comes before that.

If indeed we're true, I'm really not sure how most men would get anything done,

because their brain would just be so clogged with thoughts of sex.

And we'll be setting Evan Davis the most fiendish challenge of his career,

trying to find simple economic data on the website of the Office for National Statistics.

But first, let's talk about how long people have to wait

for emergency treatment in English NHS hospitals.

Research suggests waiting times for accident and emergency departments have reached a nine-year

high. That headline was from the Radio 4 Bulletin's.

Actually, a lot of the reporting we've seen here looks perfectly reasonable to us,

but it is worth clarifying a teensy point.

What is a waiting time?

So off on more or less, we hear statistical claims,

but then it's easy to jump to a conclusion about what the statistic is describing.

You might assume that your waiting time at accident and emergency

...