Royal Statistical Society launches statistical literacy campaign – getstats

Author: The Royal Statistical Society

Royal Statistical Society President-elect, Valerie Isham, formally launched the getstats campaign at ten past eight in the evening of Wednesday, 20 October 2010 – the numerically pleasing 20:10 20-10-2010. The day was also designated by the UN as 'World Statistics Day'.

The UN supports World Statistics day

(Courtesy UN/http://unstats.un.org)

The getstats campaign is about giving everyone the skills and confidence needed to understand data and statistics. As our current President, David Hand, says: “Numbers are everywhere in our lives, and statistics is about turning these numbers into useful information on which we can take action. People need to appreciate the power of statistics as it can be the key to the important choices we make in our lives.

“Our campaign is intended for everyone, and especially those with responsibility to educate and inform the public about statistics – teachers, employers, the media and elected representatives.”

Wednesday 20th October was also the day that the UK government detailed its Comprehensive Spending Review, setting out major cuts in public expenditure. So the RSS commissioned an Ipsos MORI survey to find out what people know and feel about statistics. In particular those surveyed were asked if they confident that they could work out what the government’s cuts would mean for them and their families.

Here’s the press release on what we found out …

Half of UK adults not confident what government cuts mean for them, survey suggests. About half of UK adults would have little or no confidence that they can work out what the government’s cuts mean for themselves or their families, a survey for the Royal Statistical Society suggests. The survey found that nearly half of the people don’t understand the statistics or figures behind the government’s spending cuts.

More needs to be done to support the UK public in understanding the data behind these and other important issues, says the Royal Statistical Society. Last week on 20th October 2010, the Society launched a ten year campaign called getstats to improve the know-how and skills of the public in using data and statistics for their own benefit.

Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of people surveyed felt generally confident when dealing with numbers. This was reflected in their ability to correctly calculate simple percentages (89 per cent) and the average of three numbers (71 per cent). However, in an easy question about understanding chance, where people were asked what is the probability of getting two heads if you spin a coin twice, only thirty per cent got the right answer.

Royal Statistical Society President, Professor David Hand, says:

“Statisticians clearly need to do a lot to develop awareness and understanding of statistics and data across society. One challenge is that the great majority (78 per cent) of those surveyed stated they had little or no knowledge of statistical analysis.

“People often have preconceived and downbeat ideas about statistics. This may reflect the fact that the survey showed only about one third (34 per cent) of people responding had a great deal or fair amount of trust in statisticians compared to 44 per cent for accountants.

“The Royal Statistical Society’s getstats campaign is about giving everyone the skills and confidence needed to understand data and statistics.

“Numbers are everywhere in our lives, and statistics is about turning these numbers into useful information on which we can take action. People need to appreciate the power of statistics as it can be the key to the important choices we make in our lives.

“Our getstats campaign is intended for everyone, and especially those with responsibility to educate and inform the public about statistics – teachers, employers, the media and elected representatives.”

More information about the getstats statistical literacy campaign can be found at http://www.getstats.org.uk