July 27, 2015

Stat of the Week Competition: July 25 – 31 2015

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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 July 31 2015.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of July 25 – 31 2015 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
    Daniel Croft

    Statistic: The latest Electricity Authority figures show 2.1 million consumers have switched providers since 2010, saving $164 on average for the year. In 2014, 385,596 households switched over, collectively saving $281 million
    Source: stuff.co.nz
    Date: 28 July 2015

    Last year $281 million dollars were saved by 385,596 households by changing power companies… you have to look at this from the otherside, that of the big buisness. The market is flooded with competition for selling power, the choice is varied and yet we hear of the money people are saving but not of the big buisnesses struggling. This shows that they can lose so much, over a quarter of a billion dollars and not bat an eyelid. Makes you wonder how overpriced is our electricity actually is, and it is statistics like this that should make people realise that we could and should be saving so much more. Thinking about it, the government itself has paid for ads on tv about changing power companies to save money, if this is something that even our government is having to step in and tell people to do then should they not regulate this market in a way they do many others?

    9 years ago