September 18, 2017

Stat of the Week Competition: September 16 – 22 2017

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 September 22 2017.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of September 16 – 22 2017 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
    Peter Green

    Statistic: “A possible maximum of 15.5% may vote for TOP.”
    Source: The Opportunities Party
    Date: 18 September 2017

    Result is out of line with established polls. Unnamed firm, and very few details provided.

    (Not sure it’s been picked up by official “NZ Media” yet, but I’m seeing it shared on social media, including here: https://twitter.com/tmurphyNZ/status/909577995022503936)

    7 years ago

  • avatar
    John Dalton

    Statistic: Average number of sexual partners revealed in new study.

    For men, the average is six while women sit slightly higher on seven.
    Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
    Date: 28 Aug, 2017

    This article shows how valuable an accurate dataset is:
    1. Is the sample size to small?
    2. Are the men or woman lying?
    3. Did the sample contain just heterosexual individuals?

    7 years ago