Fuel Poverty with the Over-60 Crowd in England

EDITED by request of the source:

From Blueclawsearch.co.uk, a great use of infographics in your marketing strategy is in coordination with a press release to help communicate a message to your audience. 

The press release was of course sent out to the normal sources, but the infographic can have a life of its own.  The infographic has the additional ability to reach their audience directly, and be shared on the Internet in ways that a press release never would.

Here’s the press release that went out in conjunction with the infographic:

PRESS RELEASE for immediate release

DATE: 3rd February 2011

Blueclaw Highlights Study on Fuel Poverty Amongst Over 60s in England

This infographic created with the intention of providing a visual impact of how the elderly over 60s are coping in the freezing winter months. These figures are from a recent study on fuel poverty and the over 60s in England*.

Fuel poverty is a real and rising problem in England - 4.6 million people aged over 60 are worried about being to afford heating bills. Furthermore, 1 in 3 over 60’s had to resort to drastic measures to fend off the cold, such as going to a public library. Also according to the study, winter deaths between 2009 and 2010 have totalled more than 23,000.

Too many times and too often, statistics and data from important studies are ignored not because the findings are not urgent, but because most people find it hard to process numbers and jargon easily. AgeUK has recently done a study on how fuel poverty is affecting the over 60s in the UK. This infographic was designed by Blueclaw, to create a visual impact of the study. This social awareness campaign coincides with Fuel Poverty Awareness Day (11th February), a national awareness-raising media and public affairs campaign with an aim to urge MPs to focus their surgeries that week, on helping those who are in or at risk of fuel poverty.

*Study taken from: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/archive/poorest-over-60s-twice-as-likely-to-dread-the-cold-as-the-richest-says-age-uk/

More info on Fuel Poverty Awareness Day: http://www.nea.org.uk/fuel-poverty-awareness-day-2011/

I do have a couple issues with the infographic design itself.  Why are the squares that are “2X and 3X as likely” the same size?  Why is 1/3” represented in a solid circle (looks like a pie chart, so it should show a 1/3 slice)?  The grid of 17 houses representing 1.7 million is 6 houses across, which is hard for most readers to comprehend.  We live in a base-10 world, so the grid should be 5 houses wide.