ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Office for National Statistics

Imagine you and your friends making a list of all the things you like and dislike about school. Now imagine if the whole country did this - that's what the Office for National Statistics (ONS) does! They ask lots of people in the UK questions about things like how many hours they work, how much money they earn, and what their favourite TV shows are.

The ONS collects all of this information and uses it to help the government and businesses understand what is happening in the country. For example, if lots of people say they are struggling to pay their bills, this might tell the government that they need to do more to help people with their finances.

The ONS also uses this information to make all sorts of interesting charts and graphs that show patterns in how people live their lives. For example, they might make a chart that shows which cities in the UK have the most people working in hospitals or which age group watches the most TV.

Overall, the ONS helps us understand what is going on in our country and best of all, they make it easy to understand even for a five-year-old like yourself!