Why the ONS would survive my cull of X accounts
If I had to cull the number of accounts I follow on X to just ten, @ONS would make the grade.
As for the other 9, I’d be reluctant to say goodbye to @PaintingsLondon, @MattCartoonist, @createstreets or @DiaperDiplomacy but I reckon as long as I retained the Office for National Statistics I could continue to consider myself well informed.
This is a bit of a diversion away from what was meant to be a punchy column on population trends and housebuilding but it dawned on me as I turned (where else?) to the ONS for the latest on both topics that our sometimes-maligned national stats body really does perform a magnificent public service, and their output on X alone is fantastically useful.
I give a business and finance news update every morning on LBC (just after 0730, do tune in) and I’ll often be found refreshing my X feed at 06:59 waiting for the latest curated and well-presented data update from the ONS on retail sales, public sector borrowing, GDP and the labour market. As a financial journalist, I won’t be alone in this routine.
Not long ago these market sensitive releases were conveyed in person to journalists in a lock-in, with publication embargoed to 0930, but as the pandemic lockdown rendered this impractical the ONS just started releasing everything – to everyone – at 0700. Two years on, in March 2022, they announced they would keep this new arrangement as “the earlier release time has better positioned these important statistics in the daily news cycle and made them more accessible to large audiences.”
Earlier this year, having been asked to review the decision, the body said the 0700 slot “increases the visibility and timely explanation of our statistics via the media [remember, LBC, Monday to Friday, 0730] and thereby helps meet our statutory responsibility to deliver statistics for the public good.” Who could be opposed to that?
As for the data that inspired this column – population trends – it was released at a leisurely 0930, not being market sensitive, but it was striking. Estimates indicate that the number of households in England is set to increase by 2.4m (more than 10 per cent) over the ten years to 2032. Households containing someone over 85 will increase by more than 40 per cent while households with children will fall by 8.4 per cent.
There’s an enormous story in that data, and we can unpick it thanks to the ONS.
Though not today, as I’ve run out of room.