September 26, 2016

Stat of the Week Competition: September 24 – 30 2016

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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 September 30 2016.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of September 24 – 30 2016 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
    Tommy Honey

    Kirsty Wynn of the Herald has no idea of the meaning of the word ‘average’. This article claims that “more than one million renters are locked out of the home ownership dream because they cannot afford the deposit”. This is based on the statistic that “78 per cent of those currently renting – or 458,000 households – have a net worth of $120,000 or less which means they cannot afford the 20 per cent deposit on the average New Zealand home”. Clearly they can’t; but they could afford a property that was less than the average price. It’s no surprise that Kirsty thinks the average price is the minimum price – it seems to be a problem at the Herald with their understanding of statistics. In another article (published September 9: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11706441), Simon Hartley wrote about how the median house price in Arrowtown has edged over $1m, with the headline “Which Sth Island town has every home worth $1m?” If only the Herald had a data department that could help the journalists and their sub-editors with their understanding of data. Oh, wait…

    8 years ago