Joint RSS South West Local Group Meeting and Mathematics Year 9 Event:

Speaker: Jeff Ralph (RSS William Guy Lecturer for 2017-18)

Title: “Society and Teenagers: How statistics reveal the changes in young peoples lives through the last century”

Abstract: “Young people born in the year 2000 in the UK are more likely to be called Megan or Jack than Mary or John, had a life expectancy at birth of over 75 years and about half will go on to higher education. How was this different a hundred years ago? Official statistics tell the story of how our lives have developed over a century of dramatic change. Statisticians have played a key role in tracking and understanding these developments. I will talk about the statistics behind the measurement of our daily lives. For example, how a basket of goods is used to represent the way people spend their money and what the items in the basket tell us about changes in society and technology. The talk will also discuss the measurement of poverty and its development over time into more than just an indicator of having enough food to eat. I will include examples of what life was like for teenagers through the last century as revealed by the rich source of official statistics.