IT’S a time of year for sharing so here are 12 stats from the Office of National Statistics on a Christmas theme for your stockings.
Christmas is, for many, all about shopping and how we shop has changed over time, from in store to using our computers or phones to purchase goods.
1) The money we spend online has increased from a monthly average of 4.9 per cent in 2008 to 17.9 per cent in 2018.
This means that nearly 18 pence of every pound was spent online in 2018, the highest annual proportion reported yet.
2) There were 1,292 live births on Christmas Day 2018. It was the second most unlikely day to be born in 2018 – only beaten by Boxing Day when there were 1,193 live births.
3) More girls were named Holly in December 2018 than in any other month that year. In total, 201 new baby girls were called Holly in this month last year.
4) We leave milk out for Santa: The price of a pint of milk went up 633 per cent between December 1971 and December 2018, from 6p to 44p.
5) We leave carrots out for reindeers: A kilo of carrots was 7p in December 1971 and in December 2018 the price per kilo was 72p.
6) 1kg of Brussel sprouts cost 11p in December 1971 and had increased to £1.30 in December 2006.
7) Price of potatoes went from 51p a kilo at Christmas 1994 to 75p at Christmas 2018.
8) Lots of people will be looking forward to Christmas pudding. UK producers sold 24 million kg of dried fruit in 2018 worth £105 million.
9) Shops also sold 361 mil tonnes of cream worth £672million in 2018.
10) Gingerbread sales have been pretty consistent over the years and were worth £15 million in 2018.
11) Turkey sales have been increasing in recent years having doubled since 2008, worth £30 million in 2018.
12) Some people like to enjoy a drink at this time of year. Last year, whisky sales were bigger than beer sales for the first time at around £3.5billion.
