Ever wonder where some stats come from?

[kandrathe]

Just saw a Fox News article ...

Often, statistics come from a place about a foot in front and below the keyboard.

You should see some of the discussion I get into when attempting to count something mundane, such as "full time equivalent" (FTE). Finance wants it based on the money (e.g. tuition, or salary). The non-finance people want it based on headcount, or hours (of instruction, or worked). Then, you have various formula's cooked up by federal and state agencies. In the end, everyone is confused by all the different numbers.

It get's worse when you try to calculate statistics across state or national lines. You are often not comparing apples to apples, as each collector includes or excludes different populations, and what is an apple in one state might be considered a pear in another state.

What they don't include in the statistics are things like accidents / road miles driven. Do they award the accident to the drivers state of origin, or to the location of the accident? Or, do they measure the percent of accidents due to inclement weather? Here, a slight snowstorm may result in very few accidents, while the same storm in Arkansas may result in many, many more. The drivers there aren't familiar with the conditions, and the states road crews aren't equipped to sand, or salt the roads.

Here is an Allstate report . Comparing cities as opposed to states, makes more sense to me.

AllState Study

It appears that Washington DC has the worst drivers.