About

rprt.ing shows how the UK is doing on measures that matter to most people, using official statistics only. Where the government has set itself a numeric target, each card shows progress against it. Everything else is compared with a year earlier, or shown for context.

Principles

• Non-political. The site takes no view on policies, parties or whether a target is the right one. Chart shading shows which party was in government after each general election, for context only.
• Official sources. Figures come from the body that publishes them, such as the ONS, NHS England, government departments, the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility. The exceptions are press freedom and human development, which use international indices from Reporters Without Borders and the UN Development Programme.
• Targets as set. Targets are quoted as the government stated them. Where a baseline or deadline was not stated, the card says what was assumed.
• Fixed rules. Every status follows a published rule, applied the same way to every card. The rules are listed on the dashboard, and the calculations are in the open source code.

How targets are judged

A straight line runs from where things stood when the target was set to the target on its deadline. On track means the latest figure is at or better than that line. Behind means worse than the line but improving on a year earlier. Off track means worse than the line and not improving. Too early means no figures have been published yet for any period after the target was set.

A straight line is a simple, neutral yardstick. Real progress is rarely linear, so a target that is behind the line can still be met.

Comparing your area

Type a postcode or the name of any local authority in England or Wales to compare local measures with the national average, covering health, dentistry, schools, exam results, going on to university, housing, fuel poverty and rough sleeping. Areas are compared with the England average, or the Wales average where one is published. Some measures are only published for county councils, so a district shows its county's figure and says so. An area is "close to average" when the difference is small for that measure, for example under half a year of healthy life expectancy or under one percentage point of child obesity. A postcode is matched to its council using the ONS postcode lookup, which is part of the page, so the postcode itself is never sent anywhere or saved; only the council is kept, in your own browser and in the page address, so you can share a comparison. Going on to university is counted by where students went to school or college, because no official figures by home address are published for councils.

Comparing with other countries

Where the OECD publishes a measure on a common basis, a card says where the UK sits among the G7: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The same seven countries are used for every measure so rankings can be compared. "Highest" and "lowest" describe the numbers only; the page does not say which is better. Where a country has no figure for the UK's latest year, its most recent earlier figure is shown with its year, and a country with nothing in the last three years is left out. International definitions sometimes differ from the UK's own, so these figures can differ from the main figure on the card; the card says so where it matters.

Sharing a view

Use Copy link to this view to get a link that reopens the page exactly as you see it: the area you are comparing, the cards you have opened and the sections you have hidden. Everything is written into the link itself, so nothing is stored by the site.

To send one chart, open its card and use Share this chart. The link opens just that chart, with the same area if you are comparing one, and a link back to the whole dashboard. Each result under Compare your area has its own share button too. On a phone the button opens your usual share options.

Searching

The search box at the top finds cards by name and by everyday words: try potholes, cost of living or NHS dentist. Status words narrow the results, so off track or health improving lists only those cards, and typing a council name offers to compare that area. Press / to jump to the box. The search runs in your browser and what you type is not stored or sent anywhere.

Updates

Data is refreshed from the official releases as they are published. Each dataset on the data page says what period it covers. Statistics are often revised; the site always shows the latest published version.

Using the data

Every dataset behind the site can be downloaded from the data page. Most of it is public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which allows reuse with attribution. Please credit the original source named for each dataset. The press freedom index belongs to Reporters Without Borders, and the public finances databank to the Office for Budget Responsibility; check their terms before reusing those.

Corrections

If you spot an error, please get in touch so it can be checked against the source and corrected.