More or Less

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more money than a family on benefits?
Did Canadian prime minister Mark Carney get the GDP of Canada and the Nordic countries wrong?
Are 1990s pop icons Right Said Fred right about what they said about church attacks?
Is a sauna really ten times as hot as Wales in the winter?
And Tim hits the science lab treadmill to find out if he can run a four-hour marathon.
If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email [email protected]
Contributors:
Gareth Morgan, benefits expert and author of the Benefits in the Future blog
Joe Shalam, policy director of the Centre for Social Justice
Professor Kelly Morrison, head of physics at Loughborough University
Dr Danny Muniz, a senior lecturer in Exercise Physiology at the University of Hertfordshire
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Nathan Gower, Lizzy McNeill and Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Gareth Jones and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

The vast island of Greenland has found itself at the centre of a geopolitical crisis. But a little bit of geography can help us see the situation in a new light.
YouTuber and map expert Jay Foreman explains how Mercator maps - the maps that the vast majority of us use to understand the world - contain necessary but massive distortions and hugely exaggerate the size of the Arctic island.
So, why is making a flat map of a round globe so difficult? Why did we end up with a problematic map in the first place? And are there any alternatives?
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Nathan Gower
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Programme Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Engineer: James Beard

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:
How far away is Greenland from the United States? We check a number From Our Own Correspondent.
Does converting our entire energy system to be carbon neutral come with a £7.6 trillion price tag?
Is the inevitable rise of house prices in the UK not so inevitable after all?
Can the great mathematicians of history answer the question of the hour: how to play The Traitors?
If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email [email protected]
Contributors:
Jay Foreman, one half of YouTube duo the Map Men
Mike Thompson, chief economist of the National Energy System Operator
David Turver, author of The Cost of Net Zero, a report from the Institute of Economic Affairs
Neal Hudson, housing market analyst and founder housing research website BuiltPlace
Dr Kat Phillips, mathematician and Innovation research associate at the University of Warwick, Traitors aficionado
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporter: Tom Colls
Producers: Nathan Gower and Lizzy McNeill
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

In Autumn 2025 a paper in South Korea was published that excited many a vaccine sceptic online. The paper claimed that receiving a vaccination against Covid19 was linked to a 27% increase in cancer risk.
However, when you dig into the data there is no evidence that the vaccine caused the cancer. We spoke to Professor Justin Fendos to explain why we cannot take this type of statistical analysis at face value.
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Series Producer: Tom Colls
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Coordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound Mix: James Beard

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: A headline in the Mail says more than 100 private schools have closed since Labour came to power and ended the VAT exemption for private schools. Is that number right?
Is it true that when Covid hit the UK, a one-week delay in imposing lockdown led to 23,000 deaths?
Do 10 million families rely on X as their main source of news? That’s what government spokesperson Baroness Ruth Anderson said in the House of Lords, but is it correct?
s there really a “quiet revival” of Christian worship? Two YouGov polls found churchgoing had gone up by 50% between 2018 and 2024 in England and Wales. New polling data suggests otherwise.
If you’ve seen a number in the news you want the team on More or Less to have a look at, email [email protected]
Contributors:
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge
Professor Sir John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Social Research
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Tom Colls and Nathan Gower
Producers: Charlotte McDonald and Lizzy McNeill
Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown
Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon