Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [statistics]

65 questions
177
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4 answers

Do 90% of employees who accept a counteroffer still end up leaving after a year?

According to a very highly upvoted post on Workplace.SE that says you should never accept a counteroffer: 80% of people who accept counter offers are gone from that company within 6 months, at the 12 month mark that goes up to 90% I looked at the…
pacoverflow
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Do vote counts for Joe Biden in the 2020 election violate Benford's Law?

Benford's Law is a statistical rule that says that the distribution of digits in real-world numerical datasets tends to follow a specific pattern. It is often used to test whether an election is legitimate or phoney, by comparing the frequency of…
Jacob Hoffman
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Were there 18 school shootings in the US from Jan 1 to Feb 14, 2018?

CBC Radio (Canada) reported earlier this evening that the Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School "was the 18th school shooting in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018.". On its face this seems a bit unlikely; also due to the fact…
jkf
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103
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6 answers

Does America not lead the world in mass shootings?

According to an OpEd in the NY Post by John Lott and Michael Weisser that cites a report by the Crime Prevention Research Center, America doesn't lead the world in mass shootings. "Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public…
James G.
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94
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Can 1 in 1,000 black men expect to be killed over the course of their lifetime by the police?

In Last Week Tonight of June 8th, 2020, John Oliver mentions that 1 in 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by the police. At 5:05 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY I have tracked the source to Edwards, Lee & Esposito, 2019, "Risk of…
nautilus
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Do the 26 richest billionaires own as much wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people?

Bernie Sanders, who is running for president in 2020 gave a speech a few days ago. He makes a claim which goes like the following: Today the world's richest 26 billionaires, 26, now own as much wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people on the…
Zebrafish
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90
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Do COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent?

There is this new study that came out, alleging, that COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent, which sounds pretty bad. I was wondering how valid this analysis is and what other view points exist on the…
user1721135
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Did COVID-19 take the lives of 3,100 Americans in a single day, making it the third deadliest day in American history?

This image is doing the rounds on Facebook: The image reads: Yes, people die everyday. Yes we know it's not you because you are reading this. Cancer takes approx. 1,600 Americans a day. Heart events take approx. 1,800 Americans a day. Suicides…
dsollen
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Has the marijuana black market in Colorado increased since the state repealed its state laws prohibiting it?

Jeff Hunt, the Vice President of Public Policy at Colorado Christian University, wrote in a recent opinion piece in USA Today: In the years since, Colorado has seen an increase in marijuana related traffic deaths, poison control calls, and…
GreenMatt
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2 answers

2 % of 'the rich' pay 50 % of taxes in Germany

A statement made by a user under a news article claims that 50 % of all taxes are paid by 'rich people' being defined as making more than 70.000 €/a. (...) 2% der "Reichen" zahlen 50% der Steuern in Deutschland. (...) This freely translates…
OddDev
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42
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Has the time available to escape a house fire decreased significantly due to "modern furniture"?

The Facebook page QI - Quite Interesting has approximately 390 thousand followers. It posted a claim in December 2022 about the time available to escape a house on fire. It claims a dramatic decrease due to the "flammability of modern furniture" but…
Nij
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Have one in four American women had an abortion?

From Reuters today, in the article Supreme Court conservatives appear willing to gut abortion rights: About one in four American women has had an abortion, [attorney Julie] Rikelman added. According to the article, this statement was made during…
LShaver
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Are deaths of patients with, but not because of, COVID-19 recorded as COVID-19 deaths in the USA?

A long Mises Institute article questions the US COVID-19 metrics. It ends with this claim, quoted from a Daily Caller reporter's Twitter feed: Here is Dr. Birx saying that the government is recording anyone who dies with coronavirus in the United…
Fizz
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Is Kamala Harris' approval rating the lowest of any vice president?

Is Kamala Harris' approval rating "the lowest of any vice president"? I was watching this Fox News video and I am not sure if it's accurate or not. Sources: 28% approval rating as of Nov 8, 2021 Harris hit an historic low approval rating of 28%,…
Node.JS
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Did the percent of humans living on < $2/day drop from 94% to 8.6% since 1820?

In a recent Vox article, the author claims (without citation): In 1820, some 94 percent of humans lived on less than $2 a day. Over the next two centuries, extreme poverty fell dramatically; in 2018, the World Bank estimated that 8.6 percent of…
johnDanger
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