Spot the Maths/Stats Mistake #2

This should be a very short post.

I've finally got round to watching BBC Question Time from 12th June, where Salma Yaqoob, despite her laudable contributions to public life over the last decade, failed as badly as anyone I've seen on there since Pik Botha's appearance following the death of Nelson Mandela to actually answer the questions put to her.  Her shameless disregard for the questions was not the end of the story, however.  There were also a great many false statistics littering her responses.  My favourite was her claim that 'one in two' British children is obese.  I suggest that perhaps she needs to look around, for that doesn't seem to be the case.

Salma Yaqoob

In fact, a quick fact-check shows that the Department of Health estimate that 28% of children aged 2 to 15 in England are overweight or obese (and so far fewer than 28% are obese, let alone a half of all children).  Their data seemingly came from the Health Survey for England, who had previously reported the same figure.  The National Child Measurement Programme's most recent report shows that around 9% of children are obese when they begin primary school, and around 19% are when they leave primary school.

I wouldn't claim that these are excellent health outcomes, but I would claim that Salma Yaqoob was a long way wide of the mark.