Category: statistics

Disneyland Crowds Return to 90% of 2019 Levels, Report Says

By Brady MacDonald From The Orange County Register Attendance at Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood and other Southern California theme parks has not quite reached prepandemic levels despite crowds and lines that might make visitors think otherwise. Southern California theme park attendance in 2022 nearly bounced back to pre-pandemic 2019 crowd levels, according to a new…


COVID Statistical Errors

Commentary As the pandemic rolls into its fourth year, the Biden administration renewed the COVID-19 emergency to keep the cash flowing. But the statistics justifying a public health emergency and vaccine mandates make very little sense. In 1954, author Darrell Huff published the book “How to Lie with Statistics” about how statistics are misused, and errors…


Noah Arcs Back to Top of BC Baby Name List for First Time Since 2007, Usurps Olivia

British Columbia’s health ministry says Noah is poised to be the most popular baby name in the province this year, replacing longtime favourite Olivia, which topped the list last year. Preliminary data released today by the province’s Vital Statistics Agency says Noah is followed by Olivia, Oliver, Liam and Theodore. The agency says the top…


The Tyranny of Polling: The UK 1 Year After Brexit

Commentary Political editor Toby Helm, in discussing an Opinium survey, reports that one year after the United Kingdom left the European Union, more than “six out of ten voters believe Brexit has either gone badly or worse than they expected.” Interestingly, the poll results also indicate that “7 percent of Remainers think Brexit has gone…


Statistics Canada Says Economy Grew 0.8% in October, Sees Gain in November

OTTAWA—Statistics Canada says real gross domestic product increased by 0.8 percent in October. The showing matched the agency’s preliminary estimate released last month, and analysts expectations. Gains for the month were seen across most sectors, including manufacturing whose rebound of 1.8 percent in October more than offset a September contraction. Driving that sector was output…


Statistics: The Confounding Science

Medicine relies on statistics more than ever, but these numerical insights aren’t always useful to our health and well-being. Statistics can help us make healthy decisions but they should not be used as a day-to-day instruction manual. Statistics can be misleading. There is a 12.9 percent lifetime risk that a woman born in the United…


Mayor’s Spin on Crime is Confusing, Contradictory, and Misleading

Commentary SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—San Francisco’s mayor and police chief held a joint press conference July 12 to share mid-year crime statistics for the city by the bay. Having worked as an administrator with the city during six different mayoral administrations, I can attest to the fact that each and every mayor used such an occasion…


Orange County’s COVID-19 Numbers Continue Encouraging Trends

SANTA ANA—Orange County’s encouraging COVID-19 trends have continued with 42 new infections reported and hospitalizations at rates not seen since the beginning of the pandemic. The new cases boosted the cumulative total to 255,413. Hospitalizations have dropped from 42 on June 5 to 41 on June 6, and the number of intensive care unit patients…


COVID-19 Hospitalizations Drop Again in Orange County

SANTA ANA—Orange County reported 113 new cases of COVID-19 and 45 additional deaths March 21. The county’s hospitalizations for COVID-19—a key metric officials are eyeing in this phase of the pandemic—dropped from 197 March 20 to 187, with the number of COVID patients in intensive care remaining at 43, the Orange County Health Care Agency…


Victoria Crime Statistics Show Lockdown Impacts

There were 37,505 breaches of coronavirus health orders in Victoria last year and a nine per cent increase in family violence incidents, new crime statistics show. Overall, the number of recorded offences in the state increased by 2.3 per cent to almost 550,000 during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the virus-related offences occurred between April…