Originally Posted by
berner
Statistics are very tricky. Basically, they try to predict the future
Statistics is more about summarizing the past. Although, from that one can extrapolate trends.
It is easy enough to count the number of deaths, or injuries requiring medical attention.
It is somewhat more difficult to estimate the number of participants in an activity, or to count minor injuries.
Also, say a person dies of lung cancer. Whether or not they smoked, it is difficult to ascertain whether the cancer was caused by smoking, or just caused by some random event.