October 3, 2011
Stat of the Week Competition: October 1-7 2011
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 October 7 2011.
- Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
- The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of October 1-7 2011 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.
- 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.
Statistic: NZ dollar trades near six-month low
The New Zealand dollar starts the new quarter under pressure, trading near six-month lows following the sovereign credit rating cut by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s on Friday and ongoing concern about Europe’s debt crisis.
The kiwi dollar dropped to 76.07 US cents at 8am from 76.52 US cents on Friday.
The highest is nearly 87.67 us cents at August.
Source: nz herald
Date: 03/10/11
Our currency changed sharply in short time.
It will affect the trade market and economy.
13 years ago
Statistic: The recorded murder rate has dropped by almost 50 per cent in the last year.
Source: New Zealand Herald (amongst many)
Date: 3 October 2011
The murder rate last year was 65 and this year it has dropped by 50% to 34.
If we put these figures in the context of the last 17 years (I couldn’t find the figures going back 25 years) we find that the mean murder rate has been 50 with a standard deviation of 9.
So the figure of 34 is only 1.8 standard deviations below the mean. Not really a significant drop.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the murder rate “double” next year.
13 years ago
Statistic: Claims of unfair treatment of Maori ‘ludicrous’
Mr Sharples said Maori offenders were arrested at three times the rate of non Maori for the same crimes, and the entire justice system including police, courts and corrections “systematically discriminates against Maori.”
Source: NZ herald
Date: Monday Oct 3, 2011
Though no specific data was presented in the article, will there be some Simpson’s paradox arguement inside the issue?
13 years ago
Statistic: Drowning deaths soar beyond 2010 total
Source: Voxy (amongst many)
Date: 4 October 2011
This is similar to my previous nomination in that it is making headlines out of statistical noise.
90 people have now drowned in New Zealand in 2011 and the drowning drowning toll is predicted to rise to 110 or more by the end of the year.
But an examination of the drowning deaths chart at http://www.watersafety.org.nz/research/ shows that 110 is pretty normal and that 2010 was an exceptional year in being below 100.
Looks like we have a new statistical term “soaring to the mean” to replace “reversion to the mean.”
13 years ago
Statistic: 41 per cent of students have had a phobia or anxiety disorder compared with 25 per cent of the general population
Source: New Zealand Herald
Date: 6 October 2011
This conclusion comes from a nationwide study of 1000 students. But the study did not include any members of the general population. Since phobias are pretty subjective I doubt that they are comparing like with like.
The Ministry of Health said in 2010 that up to 25 per cent of Kiwis suffer from a severe phobia. So I presume that this is where the 25 per cent figure comes from. Note the word “severe.”
In the new survey “toenails, melted cheese, doorknobs, tree roots and ears are just a few of the things tertiary students fear.” I can’t believe that fear of ears is a severe phobia.
I suspect that’s why the 41 figure is higher than the 25.
PS I have a phobia of dodgy statistics. So count me in.
PPS Finding toenails in my melted cheese IS pretty gross, I must admit.
13 years ago
Statistic: More families’ homes lost in mortgagee sales
Source: Otago Daily times/Terralink
Date: 7 October
The headline stats seem to contradict the headline. But, this is explained through the article.
13 years ago