Teaching pack: checking claims with official data
Six free lessons for secondary schools, colleges and journalism courses. Each uses real UK official figures and the guides on this site, and teaches students to find what the record says and repeat it accurately. Nothing here asks students to judge a politician: the skill is finding and quoting the record.
Free to use and adapt in any classroom. The figures update live, so the numbers your students see will be the latest official ones. Every data file links to its publisher.
Lesson 1: How to check a claim in five steps
Students will
- Find the original words of a statement and where they were said
- Find the official series that measures it
- Report what the record says without giving a verdict
Steps
- Read How to check a statistic: a step-by-step method using official sources together.
- Students pick a statement from the subjects on this site or from Hansard (How to find what an MP or peer said in Hansard) and find the exact words.
- They find the figure the statement is about using the key figures and official sources pages.
- They write two sentences: the quote, then "The [publisher] reports [figure] for [period]." No adjectives and no verdict.
Exercise
Write the two sentences for one statement. Swap with a partner and underline any word that judges rather than repeats.
Resources: How to check a statistic: a step-by-step method using official sources · How to find what an MP or peer said in Hansard · How to use the Office for Statistics Regulation's work to judge a statistic
Lesson 2: Percentages, percentage points and rates
Students will
- Tell a percentage change from a change in percentage points
- Read a rate correctly
Steps
- Read the glossary entries Percentage point and Year-on-year change.
- Open UK unemployment rate history and pick two years from the table.
- Work out the change in percentage points and the percentage change between them.
- Check with How to check a percentage claim.
Exercise
If a rate goes from 4.0% to 5.0%, write the change both ways. Which one did the headline you found use?
Resources: How to check a percentage claim · unemployment rate (CSV) · inflation rate (CPI) (CSV)
Lesson 3: Cash terms and real terms
Students will
- Adjust an amount for inflation using an official price index
- Explain the difference between cash and real terms
Steps
- Read Real terms and Cash terms, then Cash terms vs real terms: how to adjust a figure for inflation.
- Use the inflation calculator to find what £100 from the year each student was born is worth today.
- Repeat the sum by hand from the two index values the calculator shows.
- Compare UK average weekly earnings growth with UK real pay growth.
Exercise
A budget rose from £10 billion in 2015 to £12 billion in 2025. Use the CPI index values to work out the 2025 budget in 2015 prices.
Resources: Cash terms vs real terms: how to adjust a figure for inflation · inflation rate (CPI) (CSV) · average weekly earnings growth (CSV)
Lesson 4: Reading an official statistics release
Students will
- Find the headline figure, the period it covers and the publisher
- Spot revisions to earlier figures
Steps
- Read How to read an ONS statistical bulletin and Why official figures change: how to understand revisions.
- Open the latest page on release days and the ONS bulletin it links to.
- Students list: the headline figure, its period, the previous period, and any revision.
- Check the release calendar for when the next one is due.
Exercise
Write a three-sentence news brief that repeats the release: figure, period, publisher. Then list one thing the bulletin says about how the figure is measured.
Resources: How to read an ONS statistical bulletin · Why official figures change: how to understand revisions · How to use the statistics release calendars to find when figures come out
Lesson 5: Reading charts and long series
Students will
- Read a long official series
- Notice how the start date and axis change what a chart seems to show
Steps
- Open Bank of England Bank Rate history and UK inflation rate (CPI) history.
- Download both CSV files and draw each series twice: once from the first value, once from 2016.
- Discuss using How to read a chart critically.
Exercise
Write one sentence about each chart that is true for both start dates.
Resources: How to read a chart critically · Bank of England Bank Rate (CSV) · inflation rate (CPI) (CSV) · GDP growth (quarterly) (CSV)
Lesson 6: Your area in official figures
Students will
- Find official figures for your own area
- Compare an area with its region and the UK
Steps
- Use the postcode lookup to find your council area and constituency pages.
- Read How to find official statistics for your local area and How to use Nomis to find local jobs, pay and benefits data.
- Record three figures for your area, with their period and publisher, beside the same figures for your region.
Exercise
Make a fact sheet for your area with five official figures, each with its source link and period.
Resources: How to find official statistics for your local area · How to use Nomis to find local jobs, pay and benefits data · How to compare England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fairly
Class data sets
Each key figure with a full official series has a CSV download of every value since records began, ready for a spreadsheet:
- average weekly earnings growth (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Bank of England Bank Rate (CSV): Bank of England
- economic inactivity rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- employment rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- GDP growth (quarterly) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- GDP per head (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- inflation rate (CPI) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- CPIH inflation rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- population (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS), with National Records of Scotland and NISRA
- public sector net borrowing (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- public sector net debt (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- real pay growth (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- RPI inflation rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- unemployment rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Average weekly hours worked in the UK (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- consumer credit growth (CSV): Bank of England
- core inflation rate (CPI) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- current account balance (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- central government debt interest (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- food price inflation (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- 10-year gilt yield (CSV): Bank of England
- household saving ratio (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- job vacancies (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- labour productivity (output per hour) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- monthly GDP growth (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Mortgage approvals for house purchase (CSV): Bank of England
- Average quoted 2-year fixed mortgage rate (CSV): Bank of England
- NHS employment (UK) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- real household disposable income per head (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- redundancy rate (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Retail sales volume growth (Great Britain) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Number of self-employed people in the UK (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- services inflation (CPI) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Pound to US dollar exchange rate (CSV): Bank of England
- trade balance (goods and services) (CSV): Office for National Statistics (ONS)
More for teachers
- Glossary of 150 statistics terms, each with a worked example
- How-to guides for checking common kinds of claim
- Answers to 400 questions about UK official figures
- Open data: every figure on this site as JSON and CSV