Last month’s least likely claim appeared in The Times (9 July, below). In a brief item about learning disabilities, it said that about 950,000 children are born with learning disabilities each year in Britain.
 
Given that the total number of births in 2009 was 706,000, that’s impossible. In fact, the claim made by Professor Barry Carpenter, national director for special educational needs, was that there are now 950,000 children in Britain with learning disabilities - as The Mirror, Daily Express and The Sun reported. 
 
                                      
                                          Times, 9 July 2010 
 
Even that sounds high, as the Foundation for People with Learning Disability cites a figure for all age groups of 985,000, and the Department of Health in 2007 was quoting a figure of 55,000-75,000 learning-disabled children. But whatever the right figure is, it isn’t 950,000 born every year. A moment’s thought shows that can’t be right.