Statistics don't lie...

...except when they do.

40% of statistics are made up on the spot.

That's just the average belief of 3 out of 5 people.

Don't be so mean about it. I think I'll just stay on the median for this one.

...and in other news, 50% of our schoolchildren are performing at below average levels.

What's funny is that one of the articles actually points out that such kinds of statistic usually look *even worse* than that when they really aren't. (It's in lesson 4: averages.) I'll bet that if you really looked at the statistical data, the real statement could be made into something like "70% of our schoolchildren are performing at below average levels". Read the article and you'll see what I mean. He gives a couple of good examples in the article, but the funny one is: "most people have an above average number of feet".

True, but in the case of a reasonably large, reasonably well distributed sample set, like performance of schoolchildren, that statement is tautologically absurd the vast majority of the time.

Too True, I ran across a NY reality website a couple days ago. The kind that specializes in multimillion co-ops that overlook Central Park.

A couple of the local stats were:
Avg Income $140k (sum$/folks)
Median Income $83k (amount 1/2 of folks make more or less than)

I don't think I had quite internalized the difference. Usually only one or the other is quoted depending on the spin desired.