Numbers can be a hugely powerful but equally dangerous reporting tool

A quick scan of press releases in my inbox today apparently “reveals” that 47 per cent of people spend five hours a week cleaning their home, half of the UK population thinks money is the biggest taboo of all (really?) and two thirds of estate agents think Jeremy Corbyn is a bigger threat to the country than a no-deal Brexit (who cares?).

This is, perhaps appropriately, not a representative sample but I could point to countless similar examples that illustrate exactly how to use data badly. Most are based on small, flimsy surveys carried out by organisations with a vested commercial interest.

Yet, when deployed correctly, numbers are among the most important tools we have for telling stories.

They give heft to issues that might otherwise get lost in the noise; especially those that are based on underlying trends which might struggle to deliver the emotional punch that comes with a joyous one-off event or a tragic individual tale.

They are vital for giving us the overall picture which firsthand accounts cannot convey on their own. This is most obviously, though far from exclusively, true in reporting on business and the economy.

But the apparent definitiveness of data can also make it especially deceptive when used selectively or without the requisite level of scrutiny, context and nuance. And it is important to highlight what the numbers don’t tell us, or where they may not be as definitive as they first appear.

We often approach quotes with scepticism, asking ourselves in a fraction of a second: Who said this? What motive might they have? How was this opinion arrived at? What conflicting views are there?

Numbers on the other hand tend to be more readily accepted by readers as undisputed facts. For this reason, as journalists we look at numbers with an even more critical eye.

To take one recent example, the latest official employment stats showed that UK earnings are rising faster than at any point since the financial crisis, while unemployment is at its lowest level since 1975.

These are undisputed facts (as one would expect from the Office for National Statistics). But the data can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Scratch the surface and it becomes clear that real average wages are growing at just a third of the headline rate because rising prices have eaten away the other two thirds.

Growth is nowhere near the fastest it's been in a decade and is in fact slower than in 2016 – a very different and, I would argue, more important story that tells us far more about the real world in which we live.

On a broader level we also need to question whether the figures we are looking at really answer the questions we are asking.

Perhaps the most closely watched data point of them all is gross domestic product, a supposed health check on the state of the nation's economy.

But as Bobby Kennedy pointed out more than 50 years ago, GDP is boosted both by sales of locks for our doors and the cost of jails for the people who break them.

“It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country,” Kennedy said.

“It measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

Yours,

Ben Chapman

Business reporter