Comments on: Divorce Statistics: Divorced and Separated Marital Status http://www.fancystats.com/divorce-statistics-divorced-and-separated-marital-status/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:44:32 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: helen http://www.fancystats.com/divorce-statistics-divorced-and-separated-marital-status/comment-page-1/#comment-35 helen Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:50:08 +0000 http://staging.fancystats.com/divorce-statistics-divorced-and-separated-marital-status/#comment-35 I’m all for pretty graphs, but it’s more important that the data be correct. The data has been completely misinterpreted. For the column labeled “# who have been married,”what are the units? Thousands, presumably, assuming this data is for the entire US. The column labeled “# who have been married” should be labeled “people who are currently married.” People in the 80’s are not unmarried because they’re swinging singles — they’re widowed. Likewise, the divorce data doesn’t include those who divorced and remarried. So the “divorce rate” is all wrong. The authors spent more time picking pretty colors than thinking about the data. I’m all for pretty graphs, but it’s more important that the data be correct.

The data has been completely misinterpreted.

For the column labeled “# who have been married,”what are the units? Thousands, presumably, assuming this data is for the entire US.

The column labeled “# who have been married” should be labeled “people who are currently married.” People in the 80’s are not unmarried because they’re swinging singles — they’re widowed.

Likewise, the divorce data doesn’t include those who divorced and remarried. So the “divorce rate” is all wrong.

The authors spent more time picking pretty colors than thinking about the data.

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