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Writing and editing Titles and headings

A release or publication title should:

  • be under 65 characters including spaces
  • use plain language to describe the statistics in the release
  • reflect the language of our users
  • include the geographical coverage and time period the statistics are about
  • be in sentence case, apart from any proper nouns
  • use a colon instead of hyphens or dashes, and a comma if you need a second separator

Index of Production, UK: December 2021
Baby names in England and Wales: 2020

A release title should not:

  • be excessively long, or it will cut off in the search results
  • contain jargon or technical language
  • include abbreviations or acronyms unless they are well known, for example, UK, GDP or EU

GDP monthly estimate, UK: December 2022 (39 characters)

not

Monthly estimate of Gross Domestic Product in the United Kingdom: December 2021 (79 characters)

All titles, subtitles, headings and subheadings should be written in sentence case.

Only the following words should be capitalised:

  • the first word of the title or subtitle
  • the first word of the section heading or subheading
  • proper nouns, such as the names of countries, months, specific statistical time periods (for example, Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021), organisations, and specific surveys and indices
  • nouns when they are followed by numbers or letters, for example, Table 1, Figure A

Read more about how to write clear and descriptive headings and subheadings

Labour market overview, UK: March 2020
Child and infant mortality in England and Wales: 2019
UK House Price Index: December 2020
Figure 1: In 2018, renewable generation was 11 times greater than in 2003

Use title case for publication titles, such as Psychology Today and The New York Times. Do not use italics.

Read more about how to write effective bulletin titles and article titles

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