September 3, 2012
Stat of the Week Competition Discussion: September 1 – 7 2012
If you’d like to comment on or debate any of this week’s Stat of the Week nominations, please do so below!
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 »
I support Nick’s nomination and his point on overinterpretation of the data by the Coroner rather than the media. For example, when referring to Canterbury the Coroner states:
“The average number of suicides per year for this region over the past four years is 74. The figure of 67 deaths last year reflected the drop in suicides post-earthquake. The phenomenon of a drop in the suicide rate after a large scale crisis event, such as a natural disaster, has been observed elsewhere.”
However, when looking at the data one can see similar reductions and increases pre-earthquake (at the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2008, for example).
12 years ago