Usually you need to read the small print to make a judgement on the reliability of statistical information. Did they ask enough people? Which people did they ask? Was it just people who wrote in or called up? What were the people asked, exactly? But this sort of small print often isn’t there in brief press reports. If nothing at all is said about where the information came from, perhaps you should smell a rat. It’s also worth thinking about who produced and published the data, and why.

For instance, Mintel, publishers of the British Lifestyles Survey, are a big (and well-respected) UK market research company. Presumably they provide this sort of information to the media because it’s good PR. It keeps their name in the public eye, and helps them to sell the reports on things like Gastro-intestinal Remedies and UK Schoolwear Shopping Habits, from which they mainly earn their crust. Of course, this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the information they provide. Mintel certainly do use appropriate survey methods. But how would you know that, if you knew nothing at all about them? Be careful out there, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and ignore everything statistical just because some of it is rubbish.

So, should you talk to statisticians at parties? Perhaps you’ll learn something fascinating. In my own career I’ve worked on things like the growth rate of certain kinds of grass, and the speed at which rubbish can be incinerated, and I’ll happily tell you all about that…

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