Don’t tell me you’re not tempted to look when you spot a magazine cover saying, “How does your state rank in [trendy topic du jour]?” Many of these alleged analyses rank groups on several factors, then compare the groups’ sum totals of their respective ranks to make conclusions.

For example, in 2006, I was at a presentation by someone considered a world leader in quality (WLQ) who has been singing W. Edwards Deming’s praises since the late 1980s. He presented the following data as a bar graph, from lowest score to highest.

It is the sum of rankings for 10 aspects of 21 counties in a small country’s healthcare system (considered to be on the cutting edge of quality). Lower sums are better: minimum = 10, maximum = 210, average = 10 x 11 = 110.

My antennae went up. A bar graph? With absolutely no context of variation for interpretation? And a literal interpretation of the rankings?

What’s wrong with this picture?

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