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Alan Smith

Head of Visual and Data Journalism

Alan Smith leads the FT's newsroom team of data reporters and visual journalists. His specialism is data visualisation, on which he writes for the semi-regular Chart Doctor series in the FT's work & career pages.

Before he joined the FT, he was head of digital content at the Office for National Statistics where he was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to official statistics.

Email Alan Smith @theboysmithy (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Alan Smith @theboysmithy (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Thursday, 29 October, 2020
    ExplainerCoronavirus economic impact
    Pandemic crisis: Global economic recovery tracker

    Alternative indicators give an early picture of how the global economy is faring in the face of headwinds from new restrictions as case counts climb

  • Thursday, 29 October, 2020
    Coronavirus: free to read
    Coronavirus tracker: the latest figures as countries fight Covid-19 resurgence

    The FT analyses the scale of outbreaks and the number of deaths around the world

  • Sunday, 18 October, 2020
    FT SeriesCoronavirus: Could the world have been spared?
    Covid-19: The global crisis — in data

    Charts and maps show insights — and paradoxes — of a pandemic that has claimed more than a million lives

  • Tuesday, 22 September, 2020
    UK politics & policy
    Coronavirus response tests Britons’ confidence in the country

    Only quarter of people have faith in UK’s resilience as survey highlights concerns over failure to agree EU trade deal

  • Thursday, 23 July, 2020
    FT Magazine
    Race and America: why data matters

    More than a century after WEB Du Bois’s groundbreaking work, data activism is still crucial for social change

  • Tuesday, 7 July, 2020
    UK immigration
    EU settled status applicants exceed official tally

    Campaigners fear European nationals eligible to stay in Britain after Brexit could slip through net

  • Saturday, 27 June, 2020
    NCAA
    Lucrative US college sports industry faces uncertain future

    Billions of dollars in revenue is at risk as schools struggle to resume play during pandemic

  • Friday, 19 June, 2020
    AnalysisCoronavirus pandemic
    Coronavirus economic tracker: latest global fallout

    Pandemic is causing the biggest disruption in decades to economies across the world

  • Friday, 8 May, 2020
    AnalysisBig Data24 min
    Coronavirus coxcombs to waffles

    What Florence Nightingale can teach us about the best ways to map the spread of disease

  • Promoted Content
  • Saturday, 2 May, 2020
    Coronavirus: free to read
    Loosening lockdowns: tracking governments’ changing coronavirus responses | Free to read

    From business closures to movement restrictions, some countries’ policies show first signs of easing

  • Tuesday, 24 March, 2020
    Coronavirus pandemic
    London is most vulnerable to coronavirus outbreak in the UK

    Richest city has seen three times as many cases as any other region 

  • Monday, 9 March, 2020
    AnalysisUS presidential election
    Biden’s surge poses threat to Sanders’ primary hopes

    Former vice-president appears to be consolidating moderates, according to FT analysis

  • Wednesday, 5 February, 2020
    ExplainerBig Data15 min
    Mapping how railroads built America

    A new look at old maps reveals how cities grew and spread over the past 200 years

  • Friday, 31 January, 2020
    Brexit countdown
    The Brexit years in charts

    How Britain’s political crisis hit the country long before its formal EU departure 

  • Tuesday, 14 January, 2020
    Ageing Populations
    In charts: Europe’s demographic time-bomb

    While global population is ageing, continent presents extreme example

  • Monday, 13 January, 2020
    ExplainerUS presidential election20 min
    How map makers will win the 2020 US election

    The FT's Alan Smith investigates gerrymandering, using tiddlywinks and a salamander

  • Sunday, 29 December, 2019
    AnalysisThe Big Read
    Ten charts that tell the story of 2019

    The FT’s pick of the year’s best visual journalism, from extreme weather patterns to signs of a growing surveillance society

  • Friday, 13 December, 2019
    UK general election
    UK general election results at a glance

    View how the parties performed, leaving the Tories with a ‘stonking mandate’

  • Wednesday, 4 December, 2019
    ExplainerBig Data26 min
    Elections, inequality, the haves and the Havants

    Maptastic: the FT’s Alan Smith looks at the most unequal parts of the UK

  • Friday, 29 November, 2019
    AnalysisUK general election
    England in 2019: Split by wealth but united by Brexit

    Voters prioritise resolving the EU crisis over the deep inequality revealed in new research 

  • Wednesday, 13 November, 2019
    Special ReportDiversity in Technology
    What does a chart sound like?

    Audio presentation will make data available to visually impaired users

  • Monday, 6 May, 2019
    Books
    The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter

    A statistically significant data advocate

  • Monday, 1 April, 2019
    Brexit
    How MPs voted on the second round of indicative votes

    MPs again fail to reach a majority for any Brexit option

  • Wednesday, 27 March, 2019
    Brexit
    How MPs voted on the indicative votes

    Visual analysis: see the MP votes and who best shares your views

  • Friday, 15 March, 2019
    ExplainerFT World video8 min
    Chart doctor: the mysterious music of the yield curve

    How turning spreadsheets into sound can reveal hidden trends in data

Previous You are on page 1 Next

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