The International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013)

What is Statistics?

When many people hear the word “statistics,” they think of either sports-related numbers or the college class they took and barely passed. While statistics can be thought about in these terms, there is more to the relationship between you and statistics than you probably imagine.

Extrapolations Don’t Make Good Forecasts

March 4, 2013

Adverts for financial products say – though usually in tiny print at the bottom of the page – past performance is no guide to how things will be in future. Stuff happens, such as banks collapsing, stock markets imploding, wars, pestilence (and their opposites, too, booms and prolonged prosperity included).

Statistics2013 Activities

February 5, 2013

Below are the Statistics2013 events and activities from around the world that will be held this week. To see the complete list of activities for 2013, please click here

• March 4-8, 2013 — Winter School of Mathematics—Statistics, Foundation of the Mathematicians of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
• March 3-7 2013 — The 43rd Winter Conference in Statistics: Compressed Sensing, Borgafjäll, Sweden
• March 5-8, 2013 — International Conference on Applied Statistics for Development in Africa (SADA'13), Cotonou, Benin
• March 6-7, 2013 — SAS Workshop, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil
• March 7, 2013 — Uncertain Weather, Uncertain Climate, University of Toronto Department of Statistical Sciences International Year of Statistics Public Lecture Series, Toronto, Canada
• March 7, 2013 — WEBINAR: Data Collection & Statistical Practices to Support Road Safety Policies, International Road Federation, Geneva, Switzerland
• March, 7, 2013 — Statistics2013 Inaugural Event in Mexico, Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía and Asociación Mexicana de Estadística, UNIVERSUM Museum of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
• March 7-9, 2013 – International Conference on Statistical Sciences: Role of Statistical Sciences in National Development and Good Governance, Shah Abdul Latif University Department of Statistics and Islamic Countries Society of Statistical Sciences, Sindh, Pakistan
• March 7-14, 2013 — Decision Making Under Uncertainty in Electricity Markets, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Technical University of Madrid, Spain and Energía y Sociedad, Madrid, Spain
• March 7-31, 2013 — Statistics2013 Launch in the Cayman Islands, Cayman Islands' Economics and Statistics Office, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
• March 8, 2013 — 40+ Years of the Cox Model, British and Irish Region, International Biometric Society, London, United Kingdom
• March 8, 2013 — Trials and Truths, Barcelona Tech, Societat Catalana d'Estadística, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
• March 10-13, 2013 — ENAR Spring Meeting, Orlando, Florida, USA

Census at School Quiz & Program

November 26, 2012

Coming Soon!

Coming soon to Statistics2013 is Stats2013AtSchool—a Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education and American Statistical Association special project for schools worldwide in support of the International Year of Statistics.

Stats2013AtSchool will include an international statistics quiz for school-aged learners that will launch early in 2013. This fun, online quiz is based on WinAtSchool, a competition which comprises multiple choice questions in

Why Statistics Is Important

March 4, 2013

By Jim Frost

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

I’m sure you’ve heard this most infuriating expression, which was popularized by Mark Twain. I’ve had enough of this expression, and here’s the rebuttal! In fact, I’ll make the case that statistics is not the problem, but the solution!

Mistakes Can Happen

First, let’s stipulate that an unscrupulous person can intentionally manipulate the results to favor unwarranted conclusions. Further, honest analysts

Writing with Significance! Writing competition to celebrate Statistics2013

March 4, 2013

Calling all budding writers within the first 10 years of their statistical career!

• Do you have an idea for an interesting article which would be suitable for Significance?
• Have you always wanted to try your hand at writing in a more journalistic style?
• Are you good at interpreting data?

Then why not write an article and submit it to our competition?

This is the second writing competition hosted jointly between Significance and the Young Statisticians Section of the Royal Statistical Society.

A Day in the Life of a Datamine Analyst

February 25, 2013

By Pieta Brown, Statistical Analyst at Datamine

I arrive at work and check my overnight code run worked. Success! I review the results before a catch up with my fellow analysts to go through our current projects and progress. I then get stuck into a customer behavior project I’m working on for one of New Zealand’s biggest companies – understanding its data structures, massaging the data into shape for analysis and spending a large amount of time on data cleaning.

After lunch, I switch to