Fact v fear: nine scare stories that make mugs of the British
A SURVEY by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London looks at scare stories and the facts behind them.
These are the popular misperceptions:
Teenage pregnancy
Fear: 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant each year
Fact: 0.6% % do.
Crime
Fear: 58% says crime is not being reduced
Fact: Incidents of crime were 19% lower in 2012 than in 2006/07 and 53% lower than in 1995
Job-seekers allowance
Fear: 29% says the country spends more on JSA than pensions
Fact: 15 times more is spent on pensions (£4.9bn vs £74.2bn)
Benefit fraud:
Fear: £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently
Fact: £0.70 per £100.
Foreign aid:
Fear: 26% of us think this is one of the Government’s top 3 expenditures
Fact: It accounts for 1.1% of expenditure (£7.9bn) in the 2011/12 financial year
Age:
Fear: 36% of the population are 65 and over
Fact: 16% are.
Religion
Fear: 24% of Britons are Muslim
Fact: 5% are in England and Wales
Race:
Fear: 31% of the population are immigrants
Fact: 13%.
Voting:
Fear: 43% of us voted in the last General election
Fact: 65% did.
Such are the facts…
Posted: 10th, July 2013 | In: Money, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
