We are campaigning for more support for the the UK public in building the understanding, know-how and skills they need to use data and statistics to benefit their lives as parents, citizens, in the workplace and just in their day-to-day lives when they are confronted with problems or issues where understanding data could make the difference between a bad or a good decision.

The RSS-getstats campaign launch in 2010 coincided with the announcement of a round of major government cuts. We took the opportunity to survey a cross-section of the public to find out what those cuts meant for them. The RSS-getstats 2010 survey suggested that around half of UK adults did not understand the statistics or figures behind the government’s spending cuts and had little or no confidence that they could work out what the cuts meant for themselves or their families.

Our main platform for reaching the wider public is our website: a source of information and debate where visitors can find information, make contact and exchange ideas.

Coverage and debate will include statistics in sport and also developments in open and big data.  We aim to demonstrate that numbers can be fun, accessible and immensely useful.

getstats is working towards a society in which the public themselves are sufficient statistically literate to reject exaggeration and misuse. We are working with young statisticians and others on new ways of presenting statistics and promoting imaginative visualization of data, to make it more intelligible and useful. We keep in close touch with campaigns such as Full Fact and Sense about Science, which strive to identify abuse of statistics and correct error.

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