we are not statistics

Statistics are quantitative data often collected on a large scale by organisations such as the government, charities or businesses. Statistics are collected on us throughout our whole lives, from our grades during education to how much we earn, and even the age we die and the cause of it. It can sometimes seem like our lives have been reduced to numerical data used by those in power to make changes to suit our lives as we change and progress through time. This can benefit us immensely, we can use statistics to forecast the weather and to predict diseases, but statistics can also just transform us into nothing other than a set of numbers.

We are all unique; we all have different genes making us physically different. As well as our genes, we have non-physical differences, such as our thoughts, feelings, memories, hopes and desires. Statistics don't take these into account most of the time. Our personalities and histories are discarded, so surely some statistics lack understanding or reason behind them. Crime statistics are a perfect example of this; they show us how many crimes have been committed in different areas and by what gender, but they don't offer explanation to why some areas have higher crime rates than others. Further studies can be conducted to find the reasons, but the statistics themselves give us no insight into the reasons behind the differences.

Statistics can be used to predict things such as crime, but it is only after the crime has been committed that people choose to understand the reasons behind the actions. A murderer, for example, may be in an area where statistics show there are high numbers of murders compared to other areas, but it is only after the murder has been committed that anyone tries to analyse the person's character. They try to understand what events in the person's life could have triggered such a reaction. Surely if this was done beforehand, the murder could have been prevented. Every person could be completely analysed and this would help us to have more of an idea of who will do what. Some people may be more likely to commit crimes than others due to their upbringing, but they may live in an area where the crime levels are very low. With understanding of how they were raised, we would be able to predict that something may happen before it actually does.

The use of statistics is often misunderstood by people. Statistics create 'norms' and people often feel that they have to live up to them. All kinds of statistics are kept on the weight and health of a nation, these offer us information on what percentage of the population is over weight or obese. Along with this we are told what an 'ideal' weight would be for people of different heights. This is good in theory, until you take into account that everyone is different. Muscle is more dense than fat, so already we have found a flaw in the use of statistics to determine someone's 'ideal' weight. Someone's 'ideal' weight should be what is healthy for them, and this again differs from person to person.


We are not statistics. We are all unique individual human beings. Of course statistics are often quick and simple to obtain, but they lack understanding behind them, meaning that practical applications are instantly reduced. Maybe one day there will be more emphasis on the differences of every individual, but until then, we must rely on being seen as a large collection of numbers.