Barometer | 13 November 2010

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  Barometer | 13 November 2010

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

1965: 2,500

1985: 17,500

1990: 55,000

1995: 100,000

2000: 140,000

2005: 165,000

Source: Federal Aviation Authority

Poverty, culture and exams

It’s a widespread assumption that pupils on free school meals — an indicator of poverty — do worse in exams. Here is the proportion of pupils from various ethnic groups achieving five or more A*– C s at GCSE including English and maths during 2008/9, with and without free meals:

Free school meals No free school meals

78% Chinese girls 79%

64% Chinese boys 65%

25% White girls 58%

39% Black girls 56%

19% White boys 51%

29% Black boys 42%

Source: Department of Education

Boy racers

Three increasingly popular boys’ names are derived from car and motorcycle manufacturers. Number of children given these names in 2009, and (in brackets) 2006:

Riley 2,406 (1,038)

Harley 1,290 (969)

Austin 626 (154)

Source: ONS