Because while numbers are exact and say exactly what they mean, their certitude can perhaps mislead.
As an example, when releasing its latest Marriages data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics correctly noted that:
“The median age at marriage has increased to 32.9 years for males (from 32.5 years in 2022) and 31.2 years for females (from 30.9 years in 2022).”
Now, we do know that the median is the point at which half the men are older than 32.9 years and that half the women are older than 31.2 years when they married.
The statement is clear and is true. But the concentration on the thirty numbers can confuse the brain to think that the thirties is the marriage decade.
As the graph shows, the ten-year age group with the largest number of people who married is that of the 20-to-29 year-olds.
The thirties age group contained fewer people who married than in the twenties age group, but there were more people in the thirties to seventies and older ten-year age groups (117,640 people to be exact) who married in 2023, hence the median ages of 33 and 31 years cited.
Hence, our recommendation to look beyond the headlines to the detail of the data, to ensure that you have assessed fully the evidence before developing your relevant strategies.
