January 27, 2004
Playing with numbers
"Don't trust any statistic you haven't faked yourself."
Even though, I like stats and graphs because sometimes, they can throw your own prejudices back into your face. Or haven't you heard that there are more car thefts in Romania than in Germany? Huh? Everybody knows that, right?
At NationMaster.com one can generate graphs about all sorts of odd things. They get their numbers from the UNO, UNESCO, CIA, WHO and so forth and put them into neat little graphs.
I've played around some, comparing Romania to OECD countries unless otherwise indicated. Here are some of the -- sometimes rather surprising -- results:
1. Maternal mortality per 100,000 births: Romania 42, USA and Germany 8. Romania is ranked no. 3 after Turkey (130) and Mexico (55).
2. Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births: 1. Turkey (45.77), 2. Mexico (24.52) and 3. Romania (18.88). USA is ranked no. 8 (6.69) and Germany is no. 21 (4.65). The average mortality rate worldwide is 37.08. On this worldwide scale, Romania ranks on place 129, the US 184 and Germany 210.
3. Pupil-teacher ratio, primary level (average number of pupils per teacher in primary education): 1. Turkey (27.7), 5. Romania (19.2), 12. USA (15.4), 14. Germany (14.8).
4. Pesticide use (1996) in kg/hectare cropland: 21. Germany (2085.00), 22. Romania (1617.00), 23. United States (1599.00), and, because it's ranked up front so many times, 25. Turkey (1145.00). No. 1 is Italy with 19288.00 kg.
5. Car thefts per 1,000 people: 1. Australia (7.12), 9. USA (4.09), 22. Germany (1) and Romania, surprise!, comes in last this time: 26. Romania (0.2).
6. Birth rate per 1,000 (2002 estimates): 1. Mexico (22.36 births), 2. Turkey (17.95 births), 3. Ireland (14.62), 7. United States (14.1 births), 17. Romania (10.81 births). Last ones are 30. Germany (8.99 births) and 31. Italy (8.93 births).
I like the car theft one best. Of course, maybe it's so low here because everybody has a car alarm? Go figure.
Posted by claudia at January 27, 2004 09:44 AM | TrackBackIt could be so low because there are no cars to steal. Because that number is by number of people, not by number of cars. As I am a statistician myself, I know how to cook^H^H^H^H compile them.
Posted by: Elly at January 27, 2004 04:35 PMWell.. if we do not have cars in Romania.. then.. the sun is blue.
My brother's car was stollen 2-3 years ago.
I think that the statistics about what is happening in Romania are very wrong.. Many people have cars and the main majority uses the car to transport only 1 person (the driver). On my street, you have to be extremly lucky to find a parking place during the day. (actually almost all the time)
Two months a go the spare wheel of my car got stollen (from the car) .. and when I announced the police they were not impressed at all.. also one of the officers told me that from his car, the radio tape got stollen 4 times.. of course.. the officer was also very drunk and it was only 11 o' clock in the morning :)
Did you hear about the big scandal from ploiesti maternity hospital? It was a big mess with the number of children.. some were declared dead but they were alive. The parents find out after 4 months!!!
Actually, in Romania, the number of cars per capita is five time lower than in the US or Australia.
But if you multiply that 0.2 with 5 you still get a low figure.
Thanks for pointing that out, Bogdan. I was just going to post exactly that -- per capita, Australians have 4.59 times as many cars as Romanians (619 per 1,000 opposed to 135 per 1,000). But they have 35.6 as many car thefts -- so counting by cars, for every one car that is stolen in Romania, seven get stolen in Australia.
I find that interesting!
Claudia
Posted by: Claudia at January 28, 2004 02:45 PM