UK Social Trends
The following post highlights some of the more interesting tables from the UK National Statistics report on Social Trends.
This post is split into the following categories:
Equality and Inequality
Girls are better than boys at Maths and Science
At all ages males commit more crimes than females.
Crimes committed by age and gender
Figure 9.12 Offenders as a percentage of the population: by sex and age, 2006 (page 129)
Social Myths
Only 42% of Burglaries result in loss
Also, only 57% of burglaries involve entry.
Table 9.3 Domestic burglary: by type (page 124)
Only 29% of phone thefts happen when carried by its owner
Figure 9.4 Mobile phone theft: by circumstance of how the phone was stolen, 2005/06 (page 124)
Young girls are more promiscuous then young men (16-19)
No. of sexual partners by gender (16-19 years)
Table 7.19 Number of sexual partners in the previous year: by sex and age, 2006/07 (page 104)
More new HIV diagnosis is due to heterosexual sex
Nearly double the amount of new HIV diagnosis were the result of heterosexual sex, than homosexual sex; also Heterosexual sex caused 25 times more infections than injecting drug use. Note, this is per thousand and not a percentage of each group.
New Diagnosis of HIV
Figure 7.22 New HIV diagnoses: by year and route of transmission (page 106)
Only half of people summoned actually serve Jury duty
Table 9.21 Jury summons for Crown and Civil Courts (page 134)
Safer to be a cyclist than a pedestrian
Cycling is the third most lethal form of transport, after walking and motorcycling.
Table 12.18 Passenger death rates: by mode of transport (page 173)
Social Questions
Suicide rates for women(44+) drop by 2/3ds between 1980 and 2000, while men(25-44) double from 1980 to 2000
Figure 7.18 Suicide rates: by sex and age (page 103)
More likely to be beaten up by acquaintance than violently mugged
Figure 9.5 Violent crimes: by type (page 125)
Reoffending rate of 82% for theft from vehicles – is prison the solution?
Figure 9.18 Prisoners reconvicted within two years: by offence category (page 132)
A little surprising…
Nearly half of people ‘don’t have good enough health’ to play sport
This strikes me as a surprising reason to provide for not playing sport, which presumably improves health?
Figure 13.13 Main reason for non-participation in an active sport, 2005/06 (page 186)
Domestic energy consumption is higher for water than for lighting, appliances and cooking combined
Domestic Energy Consumption
Figure 11.10 Domestic energy consumption: by final use (page 156)
Excellent post — these statistics are far too addictive…
It’s amazing to see how things alter over time. It appears that we’re more likely to be beaten up by a stranger rather than an acquaintance now and it’s great to see how much safer the roads are now than they were 30 years ago.
Also, I don’t know if the person who made the “Crime, Age and Gender” graph was on crack, but s/he appears to show that the most crime ridden age is 5-10 years!
The promiscuity table is also rather fascinating: women’s promiscuity drops quite steeply in the 20-24 bracket whereas men’s seem to rise! I wonder if the two are connected and it’s the 20-24 year old males picking up on the younger group…
I have no idea what to make of the suicide statistics…I can see why perhaps women might feel they live more satisfying lives with the greater perception of rights, but men…? Maybe we need “Menism” to discuss how masculinity has altered socially, which means getting over the idea that all “man talk” is about sport and tits.
By the way, I might just be reading the table wrong, but it appears that heating is the biggest energy consumer..? Make the cling film option look more attractive…though I guess that’s oil too…
Interesting trends Peter!