New Zealand’s Birth Rate Highest Ever, According To Some Guy At Statistics New Zealand November 20, 2006
Posted by newzland in Humour, New Zealand, Newz, Statistics.trackback
(Wellington NZ – Press) Some guy at Statistics New Zealand apparently told someone that the country’s birth rate has rocketed to over 8.4 children per woman on average – the highest rate ever, according to this other guy your friend knows.
The person who talked to the guy from Stats apparently said that 8.4 kids sounded way too high, but the guy said no, that the stable number of deaths last year meant the natural population increase was up by 400 per cent on 2004 figures, or something.
The guy your friend knows also hesitated in accepting these figures, and contacted someone who knows Government Statistician Brian Pink’s PA, and the PA told them to tell him that Brian hadn’t said anything to them about such a high rate differential, and that the guy at Statistics may have been carrying over short-term visitor entries into his calculations, overestimating the natural increase by a factor of four over the more likely rate of 2.1 children per woman, still the highest rate since 1992, but significantly less alarming than the guy at Statistics New Zealand had suggested to the person the guy your friend knows knows.
The guy your friend knows later admitted he may have got the figure of 8.4 wrong, as there was a lot of noise in the clubrooms that morning.
Rumours that Statistics New Zealand are whisper-marketing their new statistics releases have been denied by department officials.
Nice to have you back. Your absence has been noted.
Not only that, the Statistics NZ guy had an American accent, which of course makes all stats sound totally credible and believable on TV and radio.