8 Australian Bureau of Statistics: interpreting data
Learning Objectives
Statistics is an important component in business research.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics
- How to interpret data
- General tips
Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is a great free resource for gathering statistics and data. Data is collected and collated every five years through the Australian Census.
Access_Census_data_information
Interpreting Data
Data interpretation is about utilizing some key skill sets and principles to read data and visualizations effectively for the purpose of making informed decisions. Some general questions and parameters to guide this work include:
- What are the data presented attempting to communicate?
- Have the data analysis and presentation been conducted with efficacy?
- Have I considered all of the implications associated with the data?
- Which biases do I bring to data interpretation, and how might my feelings, emotions, or experiences impact any conclusions I draw from the data?
- How could these data be presented or communicated with others from an impartial perspective?
Here are some general tips to get you off to a great start with data interpretation:
- Always start by reading the title of the graph, chart, or other graphical representation as it often provides a summary intended to aid your data interpretation.
- Then search for a key and units of measure such as the number of research participants to quickly understand the magnitude of information being shared. If a statewide survey captures 200 responses, it probably isn’t representative of the population, but if a small town captured the same 200 responses, it might be considered valid, reliable data from which to make decisions.
- With the title and units of measure in mind, continue by examining the general trend such as any central line or other patterns in the data to help inform your conclusion about what’s presented. Is the slope positive or negative? What are the highest and lowest values? Be sure to look for data points that don’t seem to fit the trend.
- A final step within the data interpretation process is synthesizing and triangulating across data sources and including any local or relevant data you or others have to assign meaning and take action based upon the data. Some potential questions and conclusions to guide this reflective process might include:
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- Are these data in alignment with our expectations? If not, we might need to explore additional data sources to validate these findings or implications before considerable investment in organizational change processes are made.
- Does the data trend warrant action? Two new sales representatives were added in January of the current year and sales were up 100% at the end of the year, but sales growth for the previous year was 200%. It probably doesn’t make sense to add more sales representatives based on a smaller sales increase with more sales representatives onboard.
- Could these data have multiple interpretations? Be sure to consider how different audiences might interpret these data throughout the data interpretation process.
