"Edinburgh the loneliest place in the UK" - says BBC...

[rhythmaning]

BBC radio has been running a news story all afternoon - Life in UK 'has become lonelier'.

The city I live in, Edinburgh, is apparently the loneliest place in the UK.

Except… The survey didn’t measure “loneliness”. The tab marked “Isolation Map” details what they did measure:

1. Non-married adults multiplied by a weight of 0.18
   
2. One-person households multiplied by a weight 0.50
   
3. People who have moved to their current address within the last year multiplied by 0.38
   
4. People renting privately multiplied by 0.80

So unmarried people living by themselves living in rented accommodation are more isolated and lonely. And they measured it by looking at census data – they didn’t interview people at all.

I disagree with these findings. There may be a connection: but I bet that those living in rural Scotland can feel isolated.

Clearly spurious findings – which is a shame, because they may have been looking at – or for –some interesting things.

Comments

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

This is what we statistically-minded types like to call a complete load of bollocks. The BBC doesn't appear to employ anyone numerate.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I was going to use the word bollocks too - and then I thought spurious sounded more reasonable!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

What they fail to take into account is that alone does not necessarily equal lonely (nor vice versa).