Statistics and the 1%

The one percent appears in public discussion of wealth, inflation and lending rates, as well as in descriptions of supposedly rare hazards that may occur more frequently than expected. It also recurs within statistical practice, from p-values and accuracy improvements to the influence of individual observations. This lecture reflects on the space between headline statistics and publishable methodological or significance results. Drawing on practical statistical work, it considers how useful achievements can arise in that space, and how statisticians communicate their outcomes and assess their impact.