September 28, 2015

Stat of the Week Competition: September 26 – October 2 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 October 2 2015.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of September 26 – October 2 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
    Jonathan Goodman

    Statistic: The set of graphics comparing the break down of set plays between England and Wales.
    Source: New Zealand Herald
    Date: Sunday 27th September

    Dividing a horizontal line based on proportion of a statistic achieved by two competing teams makes sense when the statistic is a zero sum game. Possession for example makes sense. For one team to have more possession the other team by the nature of possession in rugby has less. Therefore breaking a unit length line into percentages and assigning the respective portion to each team makes sense.

    However it makes no sense to compare statistic such as line outs won and lost on such a graph. I can’t figure out what it is supposed to tell us. Even worse is when they try and present the percentage of scrums/line outs that were won and lost by each team.

    A simple bar chart would allow these statistics to be simply understood and compared between the teams.

    9 years ago

  • avatar
    Jeanette Saunders

    Statistic: Bill English attempts to use quartiles to explain distribution of prices of new-build houses.
    Source: NZ Herals
    Date: 30.9.15

    English’s use of quartiles makes nothing clearer:
    Twenty-five years ago, around 30 per cent of new homes were priced in the lowest quartile and another 30 per cent were priced in the upper quartile.

    “Today only five per cent of new homes are priced in the lowest quartile. Nearly 60 per cent of new homes are priced in the upper quartile.

    By not defining the distribution he is referring to, English is redefining quartiles. He may mean the distribution of house sales, but that is not clear.

    9 years ago