Clarity in Statistical Reporting

A story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

David Laslo, director of Metropolitan Information and Data Analysis Services at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, presented his study at a meeting Thursday at UMSL.

His research showed that St. Louis County’s population loss spiked in 1998, but has been on a general upward swing since, although it dipped in 2002 and 2003.

Graph that in your mind. And then send a copy to me care of this blog, would you? I get vertigo when I try to figure out what that professional journalist means.

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