Infant Mortality, How to Reduce Exam Revision With Maths, London’s Murder Rate
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2018
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
(0.24) Infant mortality is on the rise in England and Wales – but is this change down to social issues such as obesity and deprivation, as claimed, or the way doctors count very premature babies?
(9.45) A self-confessed lazy student wrote in to ask how he can minimise exam revision, while still ensuring a high chance of passing – we do the sums.
(15.44) Do a billion birds really die each year by flying into buildings? We explain another zombie statistic which refuses to die.
(18.40) It was reported earlier this year that London’s murder rate was higher than New York City’s – but how do the two cities compare now, and is there any value in these snapshot comparisons?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hello and welcome to more or less the program that bathes in the refreshing mountain stream of accurate statistics as well as picking out the occasional |
| 0:45.0 | plastic bag of dodgy data as it floats past. |
| 0:48.4 | This is the last program of the series and we'll be covering how to use maths to skim on your exam revision, a zombie |
| 0:54.9 | statistic with wings and whether London is now more deadly than New York. But first |
| 1:01.6 | a statistical story on a very grave topic. You might have seen news |
| 1:05.8 | headlines recently such as these. Concern at rising infant mortality rate |
| 1:10.6 | in England and Wales. Infant mortality rates up for a third year in a row. |
| 1:15.6 | Obesity, poverty, smoking and shortage of midwives could all be factors, say health professionals. |
| 1:23.5 | This increase in infant mortality is modest, up from 3.7 deaths per 1,000 life births to 3.8 deaths |
| 1:31.2 | per 1,000 live births. But we'd expect the infant mortality rate to be falling, |
| 1:35.9 | as it has been for decades. So health professionals, charities and midwives have all said |
| 1:41.2 | this is a worrying reversal. |
| 1:43.0 | As we've just heard, some people have pointed to obese mothers |
| 1:47.0 | or mothers who smoke, drink or take drugs. |
| 1:50.0 | Others point to a stretched National Health Service. But pediatrician Dr Peter Davis thinks something |
... |
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