What's in a number?

In Milton Keynes we are all agreed that it is a city of continued growth with a "can do" attitude where we buck the national trend in the current economic climate - but do we?

I have recently seen figures produced by The Insolvency Service (thank you Peter Windatt at BRI for the details) which cover the period 2000-2009. These show, for instance, that in MK (per 10,000 population) the rate of bankruptcies increased from 5.3 to 17.3, the total individual insolvencies increased from 7.2 to 31.1 and I could go on. The surprising figure for me is that the Milton Keynes average for bankruptcy orders was 21.2 per 10,000. The average for the rest of England & Wales was 17.3. It seems we are not immune.