Stat of the Week Winner: July 13 – 19 2013

Thank you for the fantastic nominations in last week’s competition.

We’re awarding the prize to Lindsay Mitchell, for her nomination of Stuff’s mixup in the reporting of a statistic:

25 in every 1000 ex-nuptial births occur to women aged between 15 and 19.

Because it is untrue. The claim is a misrepresentation of the following statistic:

25 in 1000 unmarried females aged 15-19 have an ex-nuptial birth (2011)

Sometimes rewording a statistic ends up with a totally different statistic. For example, the proportion of men who are left handed is not the same as the proportion of left handers who are men.