What Percent of Statistics are Made Up?
When someone comes to a forum and posts 56% of xxx are yyy. My usual retort is "78% of statistics are made up on the spot".
But how accurate is this, really? Is it 78% or did I pull that number out of nowhere?
There is much disagreement on this important subject. A quick Google search revealed how far this disagreement has gotten.
This guy says its 98%. Improbable. Someone out there -has- to be throwing about actual information.
This guy says its 47.3% (but later corrected it to be 43.7%) - not credible, obviously. If you can't type, you surely can't make up a believable number.
This guy says its 96%. So he's an optimist; compared to the guy who thinks that 98% are made up.
Being the internet, what is the definitive source of such information? Google? Nope. Wikipedia? Good lord, no. Yahoo? I laugh.
It's spam of course. From the spam email archive; 95% of statistics are made up on the spot.
I'll be damned...could I have been wrong? Wait. In my never ending quest to be right; this site claims that 77% of statistics are made up. I think I'll go with that; but add a margin of error (1%) to the number.
Therefore, my original assertion that 78% of statistics are made up is completely accurate. And; when dealing with fake numbers, accuracy is important. Ask Lancet, they know all about fake numbers and accuracy, they'd agree with me.
(For the record, I spelt "statistics" wrong about 10 different times in this post - I think I found all the spelling errors, though. 78% of people do spell statistics wrong on the first try, you know).
April 27th, 2007 - 06:18
Mine 98% was a mis-remembered Vic Reeves quote – he actually said 88.2%
May 26th, 2009 - 22:31
Well I would think that all statistics are made up. The ones that sight a reputable source sometimes have empirical evidence, though.
April 26th, 2011 - 17:28
Wow! Is everybody that insists on writing on this post completely illiterate. Olly, “”Mine 98%…” is not correct. I do not feel the need to continue with you. Memememeee, “The ones that sight a reputable source sometimes have empirical evidence, though.” For one, “The ones” is not gramatically correct. For two, “sight” is not the correct usage. It should be “cite”. And for three, if you our citing something, and you beleive it is correct, that information is not made up then. Just because you reiderate it does not make it any less true.
May 8th, 2011 - 14:07
Well, Brandon. You seem to fall into the premise you’re talking about as well. “And for three, if you our..” It should be “are”. “Reiderate” should be “reiterate”.
July 10th, 2011 - 21:36
I wish I could “beleive” Brandon…
December 6th, 2011 - 19:47
Brandon- way to be pompous. most of us arent illiterate. we just dont write in proper english because a) its faster b) people make mistakes called “typos” SHOCKING and c) NO ONE CARES
February 16th, 2012 - 13:30
78% of statistics are made up on the spot…