Rating places: a statistical exploration
Ron Johnston
University of Bristol
Introduction
The UK media frequently carries headlines such as these:
A proper oasis of friendliness in grim north: that’s Burnley
(The Times, 13 October 2016, p. 23)
Cambridge gets a first for quality of life
(The Times, 16 November 2016, p. 24)
They are derived from exercises, most of them conducted by either think-tanks or commercial organisations,1devised to depict variations across the country in various aspects of economic and social well-being, from which the media constructs ‘league tables’ identifying the ‘best and worst performing places’. (Thus, for...