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The Stats of the Nation: Immigration, benefits and inequality

Tim Harford explores the stats on some of the UK鈥檚 most potent political debates

What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That鈥檚 the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.

In the final episode, we鈥檙e looking at the numbers behind some of the UK鈥檚 most potent political debates:

Has 98% of the UK鈥檚 population growth come from immigration?

Do we spend more on benefits in the UK than in other high-income countries?

Is the gap between rich and poor growing?

Get in touch if you鈥檝e seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk

Contributors:

Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University
Lukas Lehner, Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh
Arun Advani, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation and a Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.
Alex Scholes, Research Director at NatCen

Credits:

Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Lizzy McNeill, Nathan Gower, Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon

Release date:

28 minutes

On radio

Next Friday 09:00

Broadcast

  • Next Friday 09:00

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