The UN has declared today, 20 Oct. 2010, to be World Statistics Day. In light of this momentous occasion I thought I would share two videos from the Census Bureau about statistics. Unfortunately, they can’t be embedded here. Instead I’ll give you a brief description of the two videos which can be found at the link above.

Video 1: This video highlights some of the many benefits we receive from the statistical information provided by the U.S. federal statistical community. The key question: “What would our country — our world — be like, without statistics?”

Video 2: Dr. Robert M. Groves, Census Bureau Director, explains how statistics help synthesize the huge amount of data available in the modern world, and the Census Bureau’s role as a creator of key statistical tools.

I would suggest that the first video is more appropriate for general audiences (it could be used as an intro for a statistics class even), while the second is a little more dry. Neither are heavily statistical in nature, it’s just that the second video talks more about how statistics operates within the government, while the first talks about how it is useful to us in our daily lives. Enjoy! 🙂