Why World Statistics Day is something worth celebrating | News | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/oct/20/why-world-statistics-day-is-something-worth-celebrating
We are living through a data revolution. It is changing our world. Our choices as individuals are increasingly informed by more and more complex sources of data. Businesses are making decisions drawing on diverse and sophisticated information systems. Governments are making laws and reforming public services with an ever widening evidence base at their disposal.
However, there is still a lot to do before we can feel that we are, as a society, at ease in a data-rich world. We need to be much less tolerant of those who use numbers in ways that mislead, either deliberately or inadvertently. We should hold accountable those in positions of authority who act without drawing on the data that could inform their decisions. Decisions are judgments but assessment of the evidence can reduce the risk of making a terrible mistake.