On July 25 2019, as the BBC's liveblog reported on the country's heatwave, the BBC Data Unit contributed a quick story on the places in the country with the most ice cream vans.
The chart was based on an analysis of both Food Standards Agency data from England, Northern Ireland and Walves, and separately for Scotland.
- XML: search results for 'ice cream' from the Food Standards Agency
- CSV: search results for 'ice cream' from the Food Standards Agency
- XML: search results for 'ice cream' in Scotland from the Food Standards Agency
- CSV: search results for 'ice cream' in Scotland from the Food Standards Agency
- Bar chart: Mobile catering businesses with 'ice cream' in the title, by local authority (top 10)
The Data Unit also contributed an update to the same liveblog on the hottest lines on the Tube
The day after the BBC live update, the Mirror news website published Ice cream van capitals of UK revealed - see if your town makes the list, adding a per capita figure and broadening the search to include ""mr whippy", "mister softee", "walls" and "soft serve", among others" which identified over 1,700 establishments.
It added that "A Guardian estimate in 2013 put the number of ice cream vans at more like 2,500 - based on the number of new vehicles produced every year", but that "an estimate by insurance company NCASS for the Sunday People put the figure even higher, at 5,000."