Statistical story

(Baonghean) - The other day, while reading the newspaper, there was an article about poverty in the world with statistics from many countries. I nudged my husband's arm and wondered:

- Hey man, how do people keep track of the world down to the individual? I think just keeping track of your salary is enough of a headache for me, and yet you still don't keep track...

- Those are the numbers published in the newspaper, which sound terrible, but think about it, who has the time to verify all those numbers? People just skim through them and think, “Wow, that’s a lot,” and then move on to other numbers and other words. Those data are harmless because they never stay in the reader’s memory. And even if they wanted to verify them, how would they do it?

- But not all numbers are just for show. For example, if NGOs want to send money and aid to the poor, they have to go through these figures to understand the scale and severity of the problem before they can plan and quantify it. Just like if I want to spend money for the month, I have to know his salary…

- My naive friend, the problem with statistics, comparisons, and contrasts is that not everywhere, not always people use the same system of standards and data collection methods. That's why there are cases where the same subject, the same problem, two organizations, two sectors conduct statistics, surveys but give different data. Small differences can be due to differences in professional methods. Large differences can be due to errors, sometimes due to differences in purposes. For example, when conducting a survey to count the number of children born in a year, the population officer may understate the number a little because his task is to promote family planning, but the education officer may want to exaggerate a little to "prevent" the situation of having too many schools and teachers.

- I see, it's like you said you'd reduce your salary to cover the case I "spend too much", overspending, right?

- I totally understand the problem. By the way, what are we having for dinner tonight?

- Please eat instant noodles. Yesterday I liked a dress so much that I spent our food budget this month.

- It's okay, I think your statistics were wrong this month so I still have money left. Put on your new dress and let's go out to eat!

Hai Trieu