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Home / World

Bizarre things that kill more Americans than terrorists, statistics reveal

By Tim Collins, Shivali Best
Daily Mail·
19 Dec, 2017 07:23 PM3 mins to read

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A list of the deadliest shootings in America.

It's a pretty grim way to go, but it appears that 69 people are killed by lawnmowers in the US every year, according to new statistics.

And while it might sound unlikely, that's more than the average number of people killed by jihadi terrorists each year, with just two dying this way.

The bizarre statistic has won International Statistic of the Year, and was even tweeted by Kim Kardashian, according to the Daily Mail.
The statistic was selected as the winner by the Royal Statistical Society.

The figure was highlighted in a viral tweet this year from Kardashian in response to a migrant ban proposed by President Donald Trump.

It had originally appeared in a Richard Todd article for the Huffington Post.

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Todd's statistics and Kardashian's tweet successfully highlighted the huge disparity between the number of Americans killed each year on average by "immigrant Islamic Jihadist terrorists" and the far higher average annual death tolls among those "struck by lightning", killed by "lawnmowers", and in particular "shot by other Americans".

Todd and Kardashian's use of these figures shows how everyone can deploy statistical evidence to inform debate and highlight misunderstandings of risk in people's lives.

Statistics pic.twitter.com/aSpyFuabct

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 29, 2017

Judging panel member Liberty Vittert said: "Everyone on the panel was particularly taken by this statistic and its insight into risk - a key concept in both statistics and everyday life.

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"When you consider that this figure was put into the public domain by Kim Kardashian, it becomes even more powerful because it shows anyone, statistician or not, can use statistics to illustrate an important point and illuminate the bigger picture."

Statistic of the Year is a new initiative for 2017 that celebrates how statistics can help us better understand the world around us.

The winning entries were all felt by the judging panel to capture the spirit of 2017.

Nominations were made by members of the public as well as sought from RSS members worldwide.

Also highlighted as a winner was the UK Statistic Of The Year.

This figure, 0.1 per cent, is for what is officially designated "continuous urban fabric" (CUF) in the UK.

It was revealed this year in A Land Cover Atlas of the United Kingdom by Professor Alasdair Rae, from the University of Sheffield.

Land is designated as CUF, under the Corine Land Cover Classification System, if more than 80 per cent of ground is covered by artificial surfaces - what most people would call "urban jungle".

This statistic appealed to the judging panel because the debate about housing, urbanisation and environmental protection is highly topical.

Also highlighted as a winner was the UK Statistic Of The Year. This figure, 0.1 per cent, is for what is officially designated "continuous urban fabric" (CUF) in the UK. Photo / European Commision
Also highlighted as a winner was the UK Statistic Of The Year. This figure, 0.1 per cent, is for what is officially designated "continuous urban fabric" (CUF) in the UK. Photo / European Commision

The judges believe it will come as a surprise to many people just how little of the UK has been "concreted over".

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The same research estimated that only 5.4 per cent of the UK land area has been built upon, or in other words, is urban fabric, while 9.4 per cent consists of peat bogs.

The judging panel, chaired by RSS president David Spiegelhalter, included former UK National Statistician, Jil Matheson and BBC News home editor Mark Easton.

Hetan Shah, RSS executive director, added: "We were delighted with the quality of the nominations for the inaugural 'Statistic of the Year'.

"Taken together the selected statistics tell us a story about important issues in 2017.

"Land use, in the context of debates about housing, pressures on pay, mobile phone usage, teen pregnancies, our environment, and even deaths by lawnmowers.

"We're already looking forward to Statistic of the Year 2018."

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