"zadoc" wrote in message
...

Stats Health Motor vehicle deaths

#1 United States 15.5 deaths per 100,000 people
#8 Australia 10 deaths per 100,000 people
#10 Canada 9.6 deaths per 100,000 people
[no data on UK]
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_mot_veh_dea

This one is a bit hard to explain. The US has a far better freeway
system than Australia or Canada, yet a higher death rate. Worse
weather than Australia, but better weather than Canada.


No, it's not hard to explain. First, read _How To Lie With Statistics_. Then
take a look at the number of miles driven per capita in each of those
countries.

Here are *miles driven per capita* for those countries, for 1998:

Australia 4282
Canada 3685
USA 5730

(Source, OECD)

Statistics can be used to tell a lie even when they're true. It's their
beauty and their magnificence. d8-)

Homework assignment number one: Determine the current per-capita driving
rates.

Assignment number two: Determine the number of passenger-miles driven, to
see if that's what OECD is actually reporting (they're not infallible) or if
you have to get total passenger miles to relate correctly to number of
highway deaths per capita.

Assignment number three: Make sure those countries count "motor vehicle
deaths" in precisely the same way. For example, some may count pedestrians
that are hit by cars, and some may count only car passengers.

Incidently, the same can be said of your other stats. They are meaningless,
for similar kinds of reasons. Consider it homework exercise number four to
determine why. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress