Statistics speak

i was in the library when i had nothing to do and some time to kill. i chanced upon 1 of the most interesting types of books to me.statistics.the stats module im doing aint very interesting, but statistics are. not only can u find out things u never thought it would be and make inferences from the stats, it also tells u the magnitute of change and the process.

the population of singapore is increasing substantially over time, but the local population is actually falling. due to low birth rate and high migration. which means the gap between number of locals and total number is pulling in opposite directions. and the remaining population is made up of - foreigners. soon singapore will be dominated by outsiders and those who werent born here.

in every case, every year, every ethnic group, theres almost always more males born than females by about 0.5%. and the male number remains higher until they reach the 20 - 25 age group, when sudenly the male population becomes less then females. which means, men start dying off as early as their early 20s, and thereafter the gap continues to widen. i thouht we shoud be the strongest in our early 20s. the premature death rate of men is much higher than women's. there are twice as many above-80 women than men. but men are always said to be physically stronger. i guess there are many factors to it.

people are marrying later. now the 30 - 35 age group is majority. used to be 20 - 25 in the 1950s. most women give birth between 30 to 35. i was one of them. but theres still a significant number of ppl marrying in 15 - 19. about 1%.main causes of death is cardiovascular and circulatory diseases, followed by cancer. few caused by crimes. but suicide rate is increasing every year. so much for better quality of life.

quality of education is also decreasing. in the sense that the express : NA gap has been flattening over the years. i thought it should be the opposite cos theres more schools being built to accomodate more express students. or maybe the education standard has been increasing so much that it pushes more ppl down to NA.

Enrolment in poly is currently much more than JCs, and the gap is steadily widening. there may come a time in the future where JCs lose their place here. largest discipline is engineerings, where guys make up about 75%, and total number is 3 times of the 2nd largest, which is IT. so it can be seen that there are more guys in poly. about 20% more. the poly girls fill up courses like mine. not sure about jc's ratio. NIE is majority girls. but there seems to be a noticeable disparity in the total gender-based enrollments in higher learning institutes. does this mean ...a lot more girls retain or study overseas?

Anyway... i know i shouldnt take stats too seriously cos theres other unseen influencing factors on the stats. though most of them are minor. ill be sure to spend more time with that book should i see it again, and have the time.