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BroadElderberry t1_j4b71p7 wrote

Reply to comment by greenappletree in How do people across the world spend their time and what does this tell us about living conditions? by kraken_enrager

I mean, that's how averages work. They're one view of the data, that includes the extreme values. They aren't a complete picture, but they have their value.

In this chart, the exact values aren't what's being showcased, it's more how values compare between countries.

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tfcallahan1 t1_j4dp99v wrote

Agree - if all things are equal the percentage differences in say the work hours is what's informative. Although things like a different amount of 15-21 year olds that typically work or don't work in the country will skew the numbers.

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BroadElderberry t1_j4e3fe5 wrote

You can go down that rabbit hole for years. Unemployment rates in each country will also skew numbers. So can social security/retirement qualifications. For an analysis like this, you have to pick a range, and you have to apply it equally against all test subjects (in this case, countries).

I'd guess they made their choice based on a calculated averages of starting/stopping work.

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tfcallahan1 t1_j4fvdah wrote

Yeah. So a question is does this graph provide any useful information? If it were restricted to say persons employed full time between certain ages it would provide information for each country that can be more directly compared.

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BroadElderberry t1_j4hnr86 wrote

I think it does. It gives average times spent on certain activities for people aged 15-64 across several countries. As long as you understand what each of the bolded phrases mean and the influence they have on the outcome, it's a very useful and interesting graph.

There's a reason statistics is an entire field. Making assumptions or expecting a graph to say something it isn't is super easy to do.

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