Manipulating statistics

During this clip of CNN (shown on The Colbert Report), Wolf Blitzer says “The nation’s poverty rate jumped to 14.3% last year. [...] More than 43.5 million Americans are in need, that’s the highest number in half a century of recordkeeping.” while this is shown on the screen:

If you look at the chart, you can see that the poverty rate was over 15% in 1991 (the y axis is a bit hard to read here, but trust me). So, yes, the raw number is the highest it’s been in a half century, but that record has more to do with population growth than the raw poverty rate. If they hadn’t been showing that chart when Blitzer said this, I don’t think I would have noticed that subtle trick.

I don’t mean to minimize the significance of the poverty rate, but still, I think the rate is the really meaningful figure here.