Latest news with #Statistics
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Here are Ottawa's busiest red-light cameras in the first 4 months of 2025
A red light camera is seen in Ottawa in this undated photo. Ottawa drivers appear to be stopping more often for a red-light camera on King Edward Avenue in Lowertown this year, as the camera caught fewer red-light runners in the first four months of the year. King Edward Avenue is home to three of Ottawa's 10 busiest red-light cameras this year. However, Statistics released by the City of Ottawa show the red-light camera on King Edward Avenue at St. Patrick Street issued 339 tickets in the first four months of the year, down from 1,346 tickets in the January to April period last year. The red-light camera on King Edward Avenue at St. Andrew Street issued 477 tickets in the first four months of the year, down from 532 tickets in the January to April period in 2024. The camera on King Edward at Besserer Street issued 461 tickets in the first four months of the year, down from 502 tickets last year. The city issued 2,000 fewer tickets for red-light camera infractions in the first four months of the year. Statistics show 12,654 tickets were issued through red light cameras in the January to April period, down from 14,877 tickets in 2024 and 14,836 tickets in 2023. The 12,654 tickets issued for running a red light in the first four months of the year are the fewest number of tickets issued since 2022, when 8,934 tickets were issued in the January-April period. The City of Ottawa has added 15 red light cameras since 2022. Ottawa's busiest red-light camera is on Wellington Street at Bay Street, with 624 tickets issued through the first four months of the year. The camera caught 934 red light runners in the January-April period of 2024. The new red-light camera on Maitland Avenue at Erindale Drive/Glenmount Avenue issued 270 tickets in its first three months of operation in 2025. There was no data available for 11 red-light cameras in the first four months of the year. The fine for being caught running a red light by the red-light camera is $325. The ticket for running the red light is issued to the registered owner of the vehicle, regardless of who is driving the car at the time of the alleged offence. Revenue from the red-light camera program is intended to support road safety. A report from the auditor general earlier this year found $10.7 million in funding from red light cameras installed since 2020 was not 'used exclusively for road safety issues.' Ottawa's 10 busiest photo radar cameras in the first four months of 2025
IOL News
3 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Soaring living costs add over R21,000 a year to household bills
Statistics South Africa's latest inflation publication, for the May 2025 period, shows that the consumer price index was 2.8% on a yearly basis last month. This compares well with a year ago, when it was 5.2%. However, inflation compounds and items keep going up every month. Image: Kampus Production Even though the increase in the cost of living has slowed substantially over the past year, declining by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year, your average monthly bills will still, in theory, have increased 2.6% between last May and now – adding R21 000 to bills over a year. However, Numbeo figures show that Johannesburg is among the cheapest cities in which to live, with only Delhi (India) and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil having a lower index. Statistics South Africa's latest inflation publication, for the May 2025 period, shows that the consumer price index was 2.8% on a yearly basis last month. This compares well with a year ago, when it was 5.2%. However, inflation compounds and items keep going up every month. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Based on a basket of goods the average South African may be spending their money on each month, and taking compounding into account against the base price, every day items will have cost R1 808 more than a year ago. The figures were worked out using a nifty inflation adjustment calculator. This is based on the most recent prices for this year, so it doesn't take cost variations into account. Even without historical price data on items such as DSTV Compact Plus not being readily available, the increase amounts to R21 702 over the year. And that's allowing for lower price hikes of one item offsetting the increase in others somewhat. It's worse if you smoke or drink – those items on average went up year-on-year by 4.3%. If your weekend party stash of drink cost R1 000 last May, it went up by R43. That, based on advertisements from liquor stores, is worth almost half the cost of a six pack of beer. Investec economist Lara Hodes breaks down the contributors to May's inflation print. 'Within the food basket, meat price inflation, which holds the highest weighting rose to 4.4% year-on-year from 3% year-on-year in April,' she wrote in a note. Moreover, Hodes wrote, oils and fats prices increased 5.6% year-on-year, while the price of fruits, nuts, and vegetables jumped between 10.3% and 13.5% year-on-year. The good news is that the rate of increase in the cost of living was in line with economist's consensus. IOL
The Independent
3 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
Latest official UK inflation figures explained and why they are not what they seem
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) initially stated on May 21 that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for April was 3.5 per cent. However, on June 5, the ONS corrected this figure, confirming the actual rate was 3.4 per cent. This discrepancy arose due to an error in the calculation of vehicle excise duty (VED) data provided by the Department for Transport. Despite the reported easing of inflation from 3.5 per cent in April to 3.4 per cent in May, the actual inflation rate remained unchanged at 3.4% for both months. This data had overstated the number of vehicles subject to VED – which in turn led to the ONS overstating April's overall rate of inflation by 0.1 percentage points, reporting it to be 3.5 per cent instead of 3.4 per cent. But while April's rate is now known to have been wrong, the ONS has a policy of not revising official inflation figures in subsequent publications. This is why, in the inflation data published on Wednesday, the ONS said April's inflation rate was 3.5 per cent, not 3.4 per cent – and why its figures suggest inflation eased month on month, instead of what actually happened, which is that it remained at 3.4 per cent. April's inflation figure will continue to be stated by the ONS as 3.5 per cent, despite it actually being 3.4 per cent.
Newsroom
3 days ago
- Politics
- Newsroom
Number is up for error-ridden NZ census – so what fills the data void?
Analysis: Since early in the Old Testament, leaders have counted their population. Sometimes to raise taxes, sometimes to raise an army. They counted the men, their wives and children, their donkeys, goats and sheep … Indeed, the fourth book of the Christian Bible is named 'Numbers', because it starts and finishes with God ordering censuses of the Israelites. Well, Statistics Minister Shane Reti may not be God, but he has now ordered an end to the NZ census. The census is a comprehensive record dating back to 1851, when the colonial Government also saw fit to count the numbers of citizens and their sheep (233,043) and cattle (34,787) … though it didn't count Māori. There's something simple and comforting about totting up numbers like that. It lacks the nuance and sophistication of randomised surveys and other statistical data collections tools; it's something we can all understand and trust. That will be a problem for Reti, with his announcement that the Government is doing away with the census. 'This approach will save time and money while delivering more timely insights into New Zealand's population,' he says. He points out that the cost of conducting the five-yearly census has risen 'astronomically' from $104 million in 2013, to $325m in 2023. If the 2028 census had gone ahead, it was expected to come in at $400m. Instead, Statistics NZ will measure New Zealand, New Zealanders and those visiting here (not to mention our sheep and cattle) using other tools. Specifically, so-called administrative data – which is information about us that's already collected by other agencies, including Immigration NZ, Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Social Development, Health NZ, ACC, schools and the courts. That will be rounded out by regular smaller surveys of no more than 5 percent of the population each year. Now, pollsters have got extremely good at designing survey questions, quizzing samples of the population, correcting for all sorts of demographic imbalances, and then extrapolating from those findings to the wider population. But as we know from every election campaign, those polls are closely scrutinised by politicians, spin doctors, the media and the wider population. The slightest aberration is seized on as evidence of the unreliability of polling. This has always been the case, but in the last few years official information has faced its own challenge. There are large numbers of people, here and overseas, who have become intuitively suspicious of governments, their institutions, and their science and data. So Stats NZ (which already commissions some surveys) now faces a trust problem. It must now persuade New Zealanders and international stakeholders to trust official statistics that are extracted from administrative data (which will feel intrusive to many) and from surveys (which will feel feel opaque and unreliable to many more). It's been coming for a long time, but nonetheless, this is a bad time to drop the census. This is a post-truth era when New Zealand and the world need facts they can trust. But Stats NZ's trust problem is not just the local manifestation of worldwide culture wars; it's also a problem directly of Stats NZ's own making. It's botched two censuses in succession. In 2018, the shift towards online data at the expense of field operations delivered far lower-than-expected response rates and data quality concerns, particularly for Māori and Pacific populations. Government Statistician Liz MacPherson was forced to tender her resignation. Then her successor, Mark Sowden, quit after two damning reports into the misuse of 2023 census data for party political purposes. After Sowden's departure, former Inland Revenue deputy commissioner Mary Craig picked up the poisoned chalice of Stats NZ chief executive and Government Statistician, as least on an acting basis. Like Reti, she's fronting a decision that was made by others, but she's putting a brave face on it. 'This is an exciting and necessary change,' she says. 'The traditional way of running a nationwide survey on census day can no longer be justified, due to rising costs, declining survey response rates, and disruption from events, like Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.' She and Reti are right that the pace of policy-making requires information that is updated more than once every five years – though, to be fair, most of that data is already available, subject to compliance with the Privacy Act. Newsroom asked Sean Broughton, Stats NZ's population and housing statistics spokesperson, how New Zealanders can be confident that their information is being treated properly, and that the statistical reporting remains robust. 'As you say, the enduring challenge of maintaining New Zealander's trust and confidence is paramount,' Broughton acknowledges. 'Stats NZ is committed to building trust and reassuring New Zealand that we will protect the privacy and security of their information.' Laws and policies guide how Stats NZ protects and manages data, including the Privacy Act and the Data and Statistics Act. 'There are strict privacy, security, and confidentiality rules in place.' As for the reliability of the reporting, a cross-government chief executive group will lead and support the collective effort to improve admin data, Broughton says. Internal and external governance structures will be put in place that provide appropriate technical and governance oversight. That's critical, because official statistics are not only of curiosity value. They inform the Government where to invest $200 billion of infrastructure capital over the next 20 years – housing, schools, hospitals, climate change mitigation and adaptation … And as former Government Statistician Len Cook points out, they help us understand the dynamics of land use changes. For instance, those sheep numbers (233,043 in 1851) had risen to 76 million in 1976, but have now fallen back to 23 million. That means farmers moving off their land; school rolls falling; rural economies stagnating. Why is this? And is it a healthy evolution towards a lower carbon, high-tech economy – or is it a problem that governments and communities need to address? There is enormous variability in the drivers of population change and age structure among different local and national communities. The interaction between policy and population change is weakly understood. Writing for Newsroom, Cook warns of a coming 'population storm' for which we may now be ill-prepared. 'Falling fertility, rising life expectancy and volatile migration flows mean that the fiscal impact of demographic change from static policy settings will have the same effect as a fall in government revenue of over 30 percent by 2045,' he says. 'Almost all publicly funded services will face pressures of a far greater magnitude than we are currently seeing. Without regular knowledge we can trust, we will have little information to plan with.' Reti calls the statistics changes 'getting back to basics' – but to many, these contemporary data collection tools won't feel so 'basic' as simply counting everyone in the country. Persuading them to trust this new data? That's a task of Biblical proportions.
Newsroom
3 days ago
- Politics
- Newsroom
‘Population storm': Govt Statistician must face questions about Census
The first request New Zealanders must have about these aspirational Statistics NZ changes is of transparency. To have confidence in these proposals about replacing a normal census enumeration, we need to recognise that they have not yet been able to withstand independent expert validation. Over the last two years there has been a degree of secrecy of key papers never been seen before by a Government Statistician. It is doubtful that the statutory obligation of impartiality has been met by the release to some of these plans. This obligation has been ignored, despite the constitutional implications for the conduct of elections that Parliament will now have to sort out.
