How to Read Numbers

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What to expect

Every day, most of us will read or watch something in the news that is based on statistics in some way. Sometimes it'll be obvious - 'X people develop cancer every year' - and sometimes less obvious - 'How smartphones destroyed a generation'. Statistics are an immensely powerful tool for understanding the world, but in the wrong hands they can be dangerous.

Introducing you to the common mistakes that journalists make and the tricks they sometimes deploy, HOW TO READ NUMBERS is a vital guide that will help you understand when and how to trust the numbers in the news - and, just as importantly, when not to.

Critics Review

  • A charming, practical and insightful guide. You might not even notice how much you’re learning – you’ll be too busy having fun

    TIM HARFORD, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP
  • A vital plea to take statistics more seriously – the prose being as clear and elegant as the numbers

    SATHNAM SANGHERA, author of EMPIRELAND
  • Reading this book is strongly correlated with not looking stupid. Highly recommended

    HELEN LEWIS, author of Difficult Women
  • An excellent guide to everyday statistics . . . the authors do a splendid job of stringing words together so smartly that even difficult concepts are explained and so understood with ease. [A] timely and lively book

    THE TIMES
  • Wonderfully written – incredibly readable. It should be made compulsory reading for everyone before they leave school

    EVAN DAVIS
  • An erudite, enlightening guide to the numbers we read in the news – and why they are so often wrong. The authors make sense of dense material and offer engrossing insights into sampling bias, statistical significance and the dangers of believing the casual language used in newspapers

    INDEPENDENT

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