There’s two ways to count things. You can measure total consumption, or consumption per capita (per person). If the group of 100 people eats 1000 tacos, you could report it as 1000 tacos eaten, or 10 tacos eaten per capita.
The later is more useful when comparing between groups of different sizes. The US likely consumes more total tacos than Norway, just because the population is so much larger. If we adjust for the size of the population (divide the total by the population size), Norway may be higher —if we assume the OP is correct and this is what they meant.
Let’s assume Norway has 5 million people and the US has 300 million people, and they’re going to have a taco eating contest.
If every American eats 1 taco, that’s ~300 million tacos eaten. If every Norwegian eats 30 tacos, that’s “only” 150 million tacos eaten (30 x 5mil = 150mil).
If we’re talking about total tacos eaten, Norway “loses” the eating competition. But that’s not really fair because the US has 60x more people participating.
If we’re talking about tacos per person (aka normalizing for the population), Norway wins the competition because each person ate 30x more tacos than the average American.
So, which country eats more tacos? The answer depends if you’re counting total number of tacos eaten, or average number of tacos eaten per person (aka per capita).
I would think that to be the case, but he final line stating the population of Norway implies that these aren’t rates, but total numbers.
You’re right, of course. But I think it’s equally plausible that the original writer didn’t really grasp the difference and mixed some things up.
Can you eli5 the stat normalization thing? I failed stats in college fyi
There’s two ways to count things. You can measure total consumption, or consumption per capita (per person). If the group of 100 people eats 1000 tacos, you could report it as 1000 tacos eaten, or 10 tacos eaten per capita.
The later is more useful when comparing between groups of different sizes. The US likely consumes more total tacos than Norway, just because the population is so much larger. If we adjust for the size of the population (divide the total by the population size), Norway may be higher —if we assume the OP is correct and this is what they meant.
Thanks!
Let’s assume Norway has 5 million people and the US has 300 million people, and they’re going to have a taco eating contest.
If every American eats 1 taco, that’s ~300 million tacos eaten. If every Norwegian eats 30 tacos, that’s “only” 150 million tacos eaten (30 x 5mil = 150mil).
If we’re talking about total tacos eaten, Norway “loses” the eating competition. But that’s not really fair because the US has 60x more people participating.
If we’re talking about tacos per person (aka normalizing for the population), Norway wins the competition because each person ate 30x more tacos than the average American.
So, which country eats more tacos? The answer depends if you’re counting total number of tacos eaten, or average number of tacos eaten per person (aka per capita).
I would take on the whole of Norway in a taco eating competition as long as I can choose the tacos.
I wouldn’t win, but I’d get as many tacos as I wanted.
Thank you :)