Description
Book SynopsisNot all statistics are created equal. Take a look behind the scenes and you''ll discover that even most official data isn''t the solid bedrock we think it is. It''s patchy, inconsistent, full of guesswork and uncertainty - and it''s playing an ever-bigger role in policy decisions.
BAD DATA takes the reader on that behind-the-scenes journey, guided by House of Commons Library statistician Georgina Sturge. Revealing the secrets of a world that is usually closed off, it will show how governments of the past and present have been led astray by bad data and explain why it is so hard to count and measure things, and how we could better handle these problems.
Discover how one Hungarian businessman''s bright idea caused half a million people to go missing from UK migration statistics. Find out why it''s possible for two politicians to disagree over whether poverty has gone up or down, using the same official numbers, and for both to be right at the same time. And hear a
Trade Review
Essential reading for anyone who's ever wondered where all those numbers come from. Even more essential reading for anyone who hasn't. An incisive and urgently needed book -- Tim Harford, bestselling author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP and presenter of BBC Radio 4's More or Less
A tour de force ... To study BAD DATA is to discover the extreme limits to official knowledge -- Xand van Tulleken * TLS *
Sturge is very effective at explaining, with human examples, how bad data affects lives. Readers of Hannah Fry's HELLO WORLD or Caroline Criado Perez's INVISIBLE WOMEN will be familiar with the notion that biased humans create biased artificial intelligence programmes. Here, we see their direct effects. ... [BAD DATA] is so good at inspiring curiosity and the inclination to challenge -- Katy Guest * Guardian *
A whistle-stop tour of all the ways the data that forms the basis of policymaking can fall short -- Rachel Cunliffe * New Statesman *
[An] excellent book ... there's something here for everyone who wants to better understand the limits of our knowledge about the country ... informative and at times amusing -- Simon Briscoe * TLS *
Bracing ... the story of how often things go wrong in the political use of statistics -- John Lanchester * London Review of Books *
This informative, reasoned, and apolitical book offers a string of examples to show that statistics are not always what they seem -- Christopher Snowdon * Quillette *
The plural of anecdote is not data. But Georgina Sturge's entertaining introduction to the uses (and misuses) of data in public policy and debate combines numerous stories, some amusing, some disturbing, with a penetrating analysis of why statistical literacy matters to our politics and our daily lives -- Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy
