Statistics
They're the basis of many important decisions, but can we trust statistics?
Content last updated: 22/02/2006
They're the basis of many important decisions, but can we trust statistics?
So you think you’re pretty average do you? But you might actually be a mean or even a median…there's nothing average about averages.
Even today, there are people who argue about the risks of tobacco - it's little wonder it took 400 years to get conclusive evidence of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.
Pity the statistician - they can't even be sure if what they work with are an "it" or a "them". They're confusing things, statistics.
There's more to statistics than numbers - there's words, too. If you think the figures are slippery, meet the confusing terms.
Finding out opinions is a tricky business - you can't ask everyone your question, so you have to rely on sampling. It's the art of the possible, according to our survey of surveys.
What do league tables really tell us? Discover how to make sense of the confusing claims of performance indicators.
Content last updated: 22/02/2006
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