There's a difference between the American billion and the UK billion
A UK billion is a million time a million,
or
1,000,000,000,000
A US billion is a thousand million,
or
1,000,000,000
In financial and other statistics the US billion is used, and the UK billion is left to be the subject of quiz questions
If only things were that straightforward. For many years everyone accepted the difference between a US and a UK billion. But in the late '80s the US usage was adopted by more and more British bodies and the BBC style book now defines a billion as a thousand million.
Bob Carter is right-and it's a pity we've allowed this to happen in our country with not even the slightest complaint. What makes it worse is that they've started calling the old billion a trillion-which doesn't even make sense since "tri", of course, means three.