Whatever you’re writing about, some hard stats, surveys and academic reports are always handy for backing up your points. Especially if you happen to be writing about, say, crowdfunding, UK property investing, travel, mobile phones and the metaverse this month. More on those topics below, and for anything else you need expertise on, take a look at what else is being shared on the Press Release Wire now.

Statistics on what to do with your money (if you have any spare, that is)…

If you were one of the 42% of people who planned to dramatically cut their spending over the Christmas period (according to research from KIS Finance), perhaps you have a few extra pennies to spare now we are in the New Year (…probably not). One thing to not do with your money – be fooled by ‘decoy’ options on crowdfunding options. New research from the University of Cologne has found that decoy options in reward-based crowdfunding could boost donations. Markus Weinmann and his co-authors on the study – making clear that the gambit is ‘not necessarily an unethical practice’, by the way – found that adding a third decoy option shifts consumer preference from a low-priced to a high-priced donation by 28%. Read more here.   

Property investors would be wise to look at Bootle, Washington, Hartlepool or Burnley for investible locations, says Property Forecaster, which has combined 2022 data, market forecasts and expert insight to find the ‘diamonds’ of 2023. Particularly strong for property investment in the UK this year – the North East of England, outside of the big cities. Read more here. 

And if crowdfunding or property isn’t what you’re into right now, perhaps a holiday might be. Big for 2023 – multi-destination trips, according to Travelplanbooker.com. Searches for ‘multi destination holidays’ increased by 46% over the last year – before setting off on your travels, read more here.

Helpful (and not so helpful) technology

5.6 million elderly people in the UK struggle to use mainstream mobile phones according to No Isolation’s Digital Exclusion report. Health reasons for this you may not have thought about – dry hands, cognitive demand and the need for gestures that just can’t be replicated with a stylus. Read more here.

‘Future-proofing’ is a main priority for businesses in 2023, but the metaverse probably won’t be a big part of it for many, finds research from developer marketplace platform Deazy. Only one quarter of UK chief technology officers (CTOs) launched a metaverse project in 2022. That’s not to say there hasn’t been interest – a further third had discussed the possibility, at least. More important to 26% – time spent ‘firefighting’ rather than focusing on strategic technology objectives, or spending time on Roblox. Read more here.

When businesses don’t mind their own business

Good news – companies broadly recognise that personal user data should be protected. Bad news – more than half of companies don’t yet have proper anti-scraping strategies in place to actually ensure user data is kept safe. NewtonX’s Data Extraction Prevention Best Practices Study looking into the current state of consumer data protection found that while 87% of the experts surveyed acknowledge the importance of protection, 89% of businesses had user data scraped. 64% of respondents rely on external service providers to stop it from happening again in future. Be careful out there, and read more here.

The cost-of-living crisis continues

More scary statistics for the high street, as analysis from the BBC has found that following two years of COVID-related lockdowns, the UK had 9,300 fewer retail outlets in March 2022 than were open in March 2020. The closures of banks, department stores and individual shops could continue as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, rising inflation and economic uncertainty in the wake of international events. 61% of people are now concerned that the high street, as it currently stands, is under threat, with permanent change to the retail landscape on the horizon, according to KIS Finance research. Read more here.

The reach of the cost-of-living crisis goes far beyond the high street, also contributing to the youth loneliness crisis across the country. Year on year research has shown that young people continue to be the loneliest age group in the UK, with six in 10 reporting inabilities to afford their usual social activities due to the crisis. To help, the Jo Cox Foundation’s Great Winter Get Together campaign in January launched over 660 events in communities up and down the country – read more on the stats here.

We provide these as a jumping-off point for your own research and you should perform your own checks on any of these stories – a few tips in this post. If you’d like to source experts, further information or case studies for any of these topics or something else you’re working on, head to the (free) Journalist Enquiry Service to save hours of research and expand your network of sources.