Even in British English usage as an abstract mass noun with singular verbs is acceptable (possibly even the norm[1]). Usage as a plural noun is an Economist ho

Even in British English usage as an abstract mass noun with singular verbs is acceptable (possibly even the norm[1]). Usage as a plural noun is an Economist house style choice[2]. It's hard to tell how well the Economist sticks to that style choice. A Google site: search, with a date range of the last 10 years, shows no usage of "datum" (except for the article about the subject). An Google site: search for usages of "data is" in the last 10 years returns plenty of results. [1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=GB&q=%22data%20is%22,%22data%20are%22 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=GB&q=%... [2] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2012/07/13/data-or-datum https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2012/07/13/data-or-...