British Academy urges UK government to address numeracy crisis

A dramatic improvement in the UK population's mastery of basic numeracy and statistics needs to happen if the country is to take advantage of the data revolution now sweeping the globe. That's the verdict of a major British Academy report Count Us In: Quantitative skills for a new generation.

The UK risks falling behind in the race to tap the potential of "big data", while the countries' middling record in numeracy is creating skills deficits for employers and means many citizens and consumers lack the skills to make informed choices.

These are among the warnings of the report, which calls for a transformation in our approach to building numeracy, statistics and data analysis skills to ensure that, within a generation, the UK rises to the challenge of becoming a fully data-literate nation.

Count Us In: Quantitative skills for a new generation says there is a huge opportunity in the data revolution and argues that the UK population needs the quantitative skills to take advantage of this.

Download Count Us In: Quantitative skills for a new generation report here.

Download Count Us In: Quantitative skills for a new generation summary leaflet here. 

Read the full list of publications 'Count Us In' and 'State of the Nation'.

An evidence review commissioned by the British Academy from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research is also published today. The report, State of the Nation: A review of evidence on the supply and demand of quantitative skills, reviews existing evidence on current levels of demand for quantitative skills in the UK and the extent to which this demand is matched by supply.