“Public data only exists if someone publishes it”

LECAP — Administrations produce a great many figures. Why are so few usable?

Because producing and publishing are two different trades. A figure produced for internal use exists in a form that was never meant to be understood from outside: a series with no written definition, a table with no collection date, a total with no stated scope. It is accurate, and it is unusable.

LECAP — What makes a figure usable?

Three things, always the same. A definition of what is counted, because two administrations rarely count the same thing under the same word. The date and method of collection, because a series whose method changes midway no longer compares with itself. And publication at a regular interval, because a single point says nothing about a trend.

LECAP — What is a figure with no source?

A claim with decimals added. The decimals change nothing about the status of the sentence. That is why a news outlet publishing a chart without its source does the exact opposite of what it believes: it gives an opinion the appearance of a fact.

LECAP — What would you tell a reader facing a figure?

Look for who produced it, for what purpose, and what exactly it covers. Those three questions are enough to discard most of the figures in circulation.