iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

New post from me on Substack: some thoughts for our new National Statistician who will be taking up the role in November after a year and half with no one officially at the helm of UK statistics. One ongoing existential challenge awaits. georginasturge.substack.com/p/dear-natio...

georginasturge.substack.com

Dear National Statistician

Getting people to respond again to surveys is the generational challenge faced by our incoming head of UK statistics - can he turn things around?

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This looks interesting - has there been real change in how people think of their national identity or is it a mirage in the statistics? www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/evidence-o...

eventbrite.co.uk

EVIDENCE ON... National Identity in England policy brief launch

The new CeLSIUS policy brief is out now!

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Would you look at that! After well over a year vacant, the position of National Statistician has at last been filled. Welcome André! 🍁

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This is a serious issue. Data is infrastructure - essential for modern life, largely behind the scenes, and very visible if it fails (like clean water, electricity, etc). It's generation and use involve lots of trade offs and require someone with expertise and accountability to make them.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

In my latest piece for Substack I reflect on new projections which raise the possibility that the UK population will shrink and ask, does a shrinking population mean we 'need' immigration? georginasturge.substack.com/p/does-a-shr...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

New projections have the UK population starting to shrink from 2055 onwards. Should net migration drop to zero, the population could be back at its 1880s level in 100 years time. Should we be worried about a shrinking population? Does it mean we need immigration? open.substack.com/pub/georgina...

open.substack.com

Does a shrinking population mean we need immigration?

New figures now anticipate a gradual fall beginning in the 2050s.

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Migration Observatory @migobs.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

How does your local area compare with others on migration? With local elections this week, we've just published a new edition of our local data guide. Explore how each local authority profiles on immigration, foreign students, asylum seekers and more. migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/projects/loc...

migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

Local data on migrants in the UK - Migration Observatory

This guide has been developed to help people answer key questions about migrants in local areas around the UK: How many migrants are there in different local areas? How is this changing over time? Wha...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Immigration has been cited as an important issue for voters in the upcoming Scot and Welsh elections, but nation-specific immigration figures are not that easy to come by. We've gathered some of the main statistics here. Did you realise Scotland hosts more international students than France...?

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

£70m over *5 years* doesn't seem so crazy, does it? The fact is, trying to get an increasingly-reluctant public to respond to surveys the only way we can find out about unemployment. That costs a lot more than it used to in the days of mostly obedient respondents. www.thetimes.com/business/eco...

thetimes.com

ONS spends almost £70m in search of reliable unemployment data

The Office for National Statistics reveals another £10.6m went towards its ‘transformed labour force survey’ last year

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Big change today with the ONS's new population forecast. Rather than expecting the UK population to keep growing until 2095, the current projections have it start to decline from 2055 onwards.

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Migration Observatory @migobs.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

ONS significantly downgrades UK population growth forecast on the back of falling net migration - with net migration central estimate reduced from 340k per year to 230k (means population of the UK would hit 71m by 2034, rather than 72.2m, as projected in 2022)

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

A classic case of statistics becoming sharper with hindsight, requiring a longstanding narrative to be revised.

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James Bowes @jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

The number of people crossing by small boat this year compared to last year. The fall is very real and not seasonal. Little difference in numbers during the winter but since numbers increased in spring, half as many people are coming as this time last year. This is mainly because of European trends.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Wow - The Bible Society has retracted its Quiet Revival report which claimed polling showed a surge in UK church-going among the young. YouGov, which ran the polling, now admits that it "failed to activate key quality control technologies" preventing bias. humanists.uk/2026/03/26/b...

humanists.uk

Bible Society retracts claims from Quiet Revival report after a year of campaigning for accurate data

There has been no ‘quiet revival’ of Christianity in Britain. Today, the Bible Society has retracted its claims that there is a quiet revival of Christianity in Britain based on a faulty and unreliabl...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

The reason is all to do with data linkage - the new name of the game in UK statistics. I wrote about it last week here georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-silent...

georginasturge.substack.com

The silent creep of data linkage

Heavy-handed data grabs on transgender people and benefit claimants raise important questions

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Great news: 1.3 million people have been lifted out of poverty this morning! All thanks to a change in the statistics. After changing how income data is gathered, the DWP now believes it was over-estimating 'low income' levels by at least a million people in recent years, including 400k children.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Today a legal instrument comes into force unsealing the NHS records of former GIDS patients, the children's gender dysphoria clinic, because adult clinics had refused to give the data voluntarily. Data linkage is a new frontier - should we be concerned? georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-silent...

georginasturge.substack.com

The silent creep of data linkage

Heavy-handed data grabs on transgender people and benefit claimants raise important questions

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

New piece on the silent creep of data linkage, the latest frontier for UK statistics. georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-silent...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

New Substack post just dropped 🙌 Data linkage is the new name of the game for UK statistics, but what does that mean for us as the subjects of that data? Is there any way that official use of the phrase "alternative to consent" is less sinister than it sounds? open.substack.com/pub/georgina...

open.substack.com

The silent creep of data linkage

Heavy-handed data grabs on transgender people and benefit claimants raise important questions

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

This is a very interesting piece from the Race Equality Foundation on the good that ethnicity data does & the complexities of collecting it. Brings up issues I covered in Sum of Us around how we decide on the categories for ethnicity and race. raceequalityfoundation.org.uk/blog/why-we-...

raceequalityfoundation.org.uk

Why We Record Ethnicity – And Why It Matters - Race Equality Foundation

Chief Executive Jabeer Butt writes about why we record ethnicity data and its importance in this new blog from the Race Equality Foundation.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England. I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Government to lift paywall from large parts of the Land Registry

Exclusive: finding out who owns land will become simpler under plans to make the best use of green spaces and hit net zero targets

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

This is a good article from @freemovement.bsky.social making the point I've made elsewhere that Denmark's 'huge' reduction in asylum applications is just the fall from a short-lived spike in Syrians during the 2015-16 crisis. UK context is also totally different. freemovement.org.uk/attempt-dete...

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Anthony Painter @anthonypainter.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Much to my surprise, I have also become a tech sovereigntist. Tech fundamental to public and security systems should be under our control (sometimes in cooperation with similar countries- not US). The current sovereign AI strategy is shockingly weak. open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/s...

open.substack.com

Sovereignty for sale

Tech monopolies and the future of the nation state

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

New results from @natcen.bsky.social's British Social Attitudes survey show UK attitudes towards immigration are more divided than in the recent past. It's now a clean split where a third of people perceive it as 'bad', a third as 'good,' and a third have a neutral attitude towards it.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Interesting and reminds me of similar findings from a recent study on migration. Using the exact same dataset, researchers who expressed different personal views about immigration came up with different results which tended to support their pre-existing beliefs. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Ideological bias in the production of research findings

There is a robust statistical relation between ideology and research findings when researchers test a policy-relevant hypothesis.

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Andrew Copson @andrewcopson.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Latest piece by @georginasturge.bsky.social is a masterclass in why we should be cautious with 'trend' headlines. The supposed 'Quiet Revival' of Christianity in Gen Z looks less like a spiritual shift & more like a quirk of polling methodology. georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-gen-z-...

georginasturge.substack.com

The Gen-Z Christian 'revival', polling bots, and immigration

Botched online polling is unhelpful, but so is not having a clear picture of demographic change

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

I actually didn’t realise the Bible Society had doubled down. There may have been a modest rise in young religiosity but we’re talking a percentage point or two. There is just no way the much higher BS poll results are accurate, sorry! BBC More or Less has been on it, case closed.

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Jonny Morris @jonnymorris.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

This is really interesting for polling nerds.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

I only recently found out about the Gen Z 'Christian revival,' where seemingly legitimate polls are showing a quadrupling of church attendance among young adults. Naturally, I had to look into the data myself, and found a more mixed picture than I'd expected. open.substack.com/pub/georgina...

open.substack.com

The Gen-Z Christian 'revival', polling bots, and immigration

Botched online polling is unhelpful, but so is not having a clear picture of demographic change

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Well this is going to kick off, albeit in a nerdy train-spotter way. Dutch Railways have just signed a 12 year contract with an American tech provider, while the rest of the public sector is under strict instructions to ensure digital autonomy for critical infrastructure. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

nrc.nl

NS besteedt ict deels uit aan Amerikaanse leverancier

Strategische autonomie: Ondanks alle discussies over strategische autonomie kiest NS een Amerikaanse beheerder voor cruciale IT-diensten. „Als iedereen zo handelt als NS, bouwen we nooit eigen digital...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

open.substack.com

The Gen-Z Christian 'revival', polling bots, and immigration

Botched online polling is unhelpful, but so is not having a clear picture of demographic change

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Great article by @tomcalver.bsky.social on why income is often a poor indicator of whether someone is in poverty. Income is under-reported in the main survey used for poverty stats. A correction to that could soon shrink our official poverty figures overnight. www.thetimes.com/article/fb88...

thetimes.com

Is child poverty really as widespread as official figures show?

Labour has staked its credibility on cutting it, so it’s worth straightening out the data

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Kemi Badenoch's mouse scurrying past live on TV

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Looks like we're going with the red, which I do really like. Had some comments that basically all of these could be seen as party political colours but when it's in the bookshop I'm hoping that won't be people's first thought...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

You wouldn't think it but a slightly sad basket of tealights and canned sweetcorn in my cellar reveals a lot about the geopolitics of tech. I'm back this week with a piece on Europe's dream of digital sovereignty. Can it happen? And is it what we need? georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-dream-...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I had a good reaction to last month's piece on Dutch digital ID and the risks of takeover by US tech - turns out a lot of people care! In this latest post I look further into whether digital sovereignty for Europe is achievable and what's happening now. georginasturge.substack.com/p/the-dream-...

georginasturge.substack.com

The dream of digital sovereignty

Will Europe seize its opportunity?

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

It’s not too late to advocate for including a question on posh identity at the next census

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

georginasturge.substack.com

The dream of digital sovereignty

Will Europe seize its opportunity?

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Bumping this to see if anyone else has thoughts because I think I need to make a decision today. Leaning towards keeping the original now...

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Got some mock ups of possible new cover designs for the paperback of Sum of Us. Who has thoughts?? Ignore the fact that the map doesn’t blend in properly on some of them, the final design will look neat and perfect. And there are some other tweaks to be made, none of these is the final design.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

How do you forecast an election result more accurately than all the professional pollsters? I asked Ben Walker from @britainelects.com and he told me... it's all about using local election microdata. Fascinating stuff in this week's episode of the Talk Data to Me podcast!

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I see people reacting smugly to findings like this without necessarily thinking about the fact that reduced trade volumes are also a consequence of tariffs, and still very bad for Europe (and the US). Yes, US consumers absorb price rises but isn't there also a big cost to Europe of lower demand?

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Fantastic to have you on the show, Andy! Recommend this as essential listening for anyone curious about impactful ways to visualise data 📊

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I asked expert Andy Kirk from @visualisingdata.com about AI and data visualisation and his response was very interesting to hear

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

This is the tell - polling on digital ID was not in a 'good place.' But quite frankly this government could announce free diamonds for everybody and still be panned in the polls. That digital ID would prevent illegal working was a little shaky - but could well have helped along with other measures.

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Digital ID to not be compulsory for any purposes, the government now says. Initial thought is that uptake is likely to be minimal then and the argument for it helping curb illegal working is now DOA. www.thetimes.com/article/0044...

thetimes.com

Keir Starmer abandons plans for compulsory digital ID

Scheme intended to verify someone’s right to work in the UK will be optional, government admitted in 13th U-turn since taking power

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Georgina Sturge @georginasturge.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Just to follow up on this for those looking for recommendations of data people in the UK: the starter pack Data and AI Civil Society Network is a really good one to mass follow bsky.app/starter-pack...

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