Posts filed under Stat of the Week (195)

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 May 17 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of May 11 – 17 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.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

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 May 10 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of May 4 – 10 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.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

Congratulations to Tony Cooper for his nomination for Stat of the Week:

Statistic: New Zealand has been placed 26th out of 68 countries in a global ranking of life expectancy in retirement.

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.

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 May 3 2013.
• Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
• The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of April 27 – May 3 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.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!

Congratulations to Steve Black for his highly topical nomination for Stat of the Week:

Statistic: A bogus txt in poll on Campbell Life shows 22% support for the same sex marriage bill, 78% opposed.
Source: TV3 Campbell Live
Date: 17 April 2013

A bogus txt in poll on Campbell Life shows 22% support for the same sex marriage bill, 78% opposed. Nice illustration of just how far off bogus polls can be from general population results done by proper sampling techniques. Ironically, it came on the same day as the legislation passed 77 to 44. I can’t find a trace of it left on the TV3 web page, but I’m still collecting references. Note that the conservative blog I referenced considers it “The best indication yet, short of a referendum, of what the public actually think about same-sex marriage.” thus compounding the mistake of bogus polls taken as meaningful.

This bogus poll would be a perfect example for our first year introductory statistics course on non-sampling errors causing biased results.

Special mention also to Nick’s nomination of Statistics New Zealand’s latest New Zealand Period Life Tables.

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.

(more…)

If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!