Brexit: Britain has spoken… or has it?

Written by Nicholas Donaldson, Nora Donaldson and Grace Yang on 05 January 2018.

The “Brexit” referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union (EU) took place on 23 June 2016. The result was essentially 52-48 in favour of Leave, as the observed proportion of Leavers was 51.9%. On this basis, statements like “the majority of the UK chose to leave the EU” or “the British people have voted to leave the European Union” or “the will of the British people is…” have pervaded political discourse and newspaper articles since. However, all those statements are untrue or – at best – unproven.

People living near mass shootings “more likely to support gun control”

Written by Brian Tarran on 05 December 2017.

Analysis of public opinion surveys in the US suggests that increased proximity to mass shootings is associated with heightened support for stricter gun control. The research, by political scientists Benjamin Newman and Todd Hartman, was published online the day after a gunman shot and killed 58 people, wounding 546 others, at a Las Vegas music festival.

We, the millennials: The statistical significance of political significance

Written by Kevin Lin on 29 November 2017.

Kevin Lin, winner of the 2017 Statistical Excellence Award for Early-Career Writing, explores political engagement via the social media site Reddit in the years leading up to the election of President Donald Trump.

So, were you surprised by the BBC/ONS crime risk calculator?

Written by Andromachi Tseloni and Ken Pease on 01 November 2017.

On 7 September this year, the BBC published a "crime risk calculator". A product of BBC News and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), users were invited to “Find your personal risk of being a victim”.

Visualising regional data using the geofacet R package

Written by Stella Cangelosi, Luciana Dalla Valle and Julian Stander on 25 August 2017.

Spatial data make an enormous contribution to our understanding of the world. They allow us to monitor life expectancy and the spread of disease within a country, the distribution of employment and wealth across a continent, and the condition and use of land in a conservation area. They help us to understand from where people watched the recent eclipse, which roads are the most dangerous, and what areas of a city are the least polluted and have the lowest crime rates.