April 22, 2013

Stat of the Week Competition: April 20 – 26 2013

Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

  • Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday April 26 2013.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of April 20 – 26 2013 inclusive.
  • Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

The fine print:

  • Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
  • The judges’ decision will be final.
  • The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
  • Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
  • Individual posts on Stats Chat are just the opinions of their authors, who can criticise anyone who they feel deserves it, but the Stat of the Week award involves the Department of Statistics more officially. For that reason, we will not award Stat of the Week for a statistic coming from anyone at the University of Auckland outside the Statistics department. You can still nominate and discuss them, but the nomination won’t be eligible for the prize.
  • Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
  • The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
  • The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
  • The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.
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Rachel Cunliffe is the co-director of CensusAtSchool and currently consults for the Department of Statistics. Her interests include statistical literacy, social media and blogging. See all posts by Rachel Cunliffe »

Nominations

  • avatar
    Jamie Sneddon

    Statistic: 60% of NZers say Anzac Day most important to them; only 8% say Waitangi Day. (29% both equally).
    Source: NZ Herald
    Date: 21/4

    Surveying about Anzac Day less than a month before it happens is bound to skew the results!

    11 years ago

  • avatar
    Nick Iversen

    Statistic: The office kitchen is dirtier than the toilet
    Source: New Zealand Herald
    Date: 24 April 2013

    Another example of an ad disguised as a survey.

    The “researchers” took bacterial samples form 8 offices (yes a sample size of just 8) and found that “half of surfaces in workplace kitchens are contaminated by dangerously high levels of coliforms.”

    The research was carried out by Initial Hygiene, a company that provides workplace hygiene services.

    Careful reading of the article shows that they didn’t really compare the kitchen with the toilet – they compared kettle handles with toilet doors. So it’s really just comparing handles with handles.

    11 years ago

  • avatar

    Statistic: New Zealand has been placed 26th out of 68 countries in a global ranking of life expectancy in retirement.
    Source: Bloomberg
    Date: 19 April 2013

    The Bloomberg data is wrong. They have incorrectly calculated “average number of years residents of 68 countries around the world can look forward to after they stop working.”

    It’s a Bloomberg story but the data is being reproduced in NZ for Kiwisaver investors. For example http://media.gmi.co.nz/mailouts/morganOnline/2013/MorganOnlineApr2013.htm

    What Bloomberg have done is subtract the average age of retirement from the life expectancy at birth to calculate “sunset years.” For example, for NZ males this is 78.8 – 65 = 13.8.

    But according to NZ Stats Dept figures released last week the life expectancy for NZ males at 65 is 18.8 – a big difference.

    The error that Bloomberg made is that you can’t calculate life expectancy at age 65 from the life expectancy at birth. 65 year-olds have a better life expectancy than newborns since they have survived 65 years whereas newborns have a chance of dying before 65.

    11 years ago