Who’s counting?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote How do I love thee? Let me count the ways?
One assumes she would write a simple numbered list. Easy to read and understand mathematically.

Sometimes however we are presented with statistics which on the face of it look impeccable but which are wrong.

A recent example caught my eye – abortions for girls have doubled since 1991! The headlines shrieked, the moralists pontificated. But allow for population growth of 2-3% from 1991 til’ now and yes, you would expect the figures to double. In effect then there has been no change.