The Population of the UK

You will be encouraged to build your own alternative theories of social policy and human geography. For that is what Daniel Dorling has done: build a documented story that questions many standard interpretations and identifies new ways of seeing the world
Ludi Simpson
President of the British Society of Population Studies and Professor of Population Studies, The University of Manchester
Danny Dorling has already established himself as our leading human geographer - and a doughty fighter for a more just society. This book will provide readers with a powerful and new way of understanding the shape of their country, and how their country shapes them
Matthew Taylor
Chief Executive, RSA
Dorling has written an excellent book using statistics and maps to cast light on what it means to live in the UK today. This is engaging and thought provoking material for any reader, and especially for students
Hetan Shah
Executive Director, The Royal Statistical Society This is a book demanding action in a number of ways. It is commendably rich in quantitative evidence, but the author claims that it is not purely objective: he sets out his interpretation of the data in the context of his own railing against inequalities. The evidence is a call to arms against inequality's human origins. We can do better, he says: just look at the abstentions in voting patterns. We can do better: which social policies would you pursue as an MP (or next time you vote for one)? We can do better: how will you use geographical data to help change people's minds?
The 2011 census results were being released as the book was being published. They provide plenty of scope for students to check out and update Dorling's social patterns of the UK. This is a book that encourages by example a do-it-yourself approach to data analysis in human geography, emphasising the analyst's own responsibility to display evidence clearly, to openly construct interpretations of data, and to focus on human responsibility for maintaining or changing those patterns. Ludi Simpson
LSE Review of Books