Truth, Lies and Statistics

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - Mark Twain attributing it to the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. A phrase that exemplifies the power of statistics, in proving or disproving anything, depending upon the interest of the statistician.

For example, the men-women ratio in the main working population changed from 70:30 to 69:31 and the number of working women changed from 10mln to 13mln between 2001 to 2011 in Maharashtra. One who wants to prove that women’s contribution in the working population is not much – may only quote the initial part of the data highlighting that there are only 31% women in the working population. For someone who wants to prove that women’s contribution is increasing – s/he may say that there is a 33% rise in the number of working women in the state during the period.

That is the power of data and statistics. There is data out there lying scattered, and if you can use statistics to tame it and make sense out of it – it can bring about all kinds of revelations. I have decided to base some of my blogs on this theme (will label them Data & Statistics). Hope you will find them interesting. Do point out in case you observe any errors. Feedback is always welcome.