You can never be too careful when it comes to the ‘grammar of numbers’ | Elisabeth Ribbans

Statistics are often likened to a minefield - and frequent reader complaints highlight the need to tread with caution

Imagine this newspaper reports that cuts in the dairy industry mean there will now be four times fewer" maids a-milking on the eighth day of Christmas. How many do you imagine will be at work? We'll come back to that question later.

The handling of numbers is something that readers regularly make contact about, and 2022 has been no different. But with the bountiful optimism of an approaching new year, we can hope that a review of some repeat offences brings down the 2023 tally by a fraction.

Elisabeth Ribbans is the Guardian and Observer's global readers' editor. She can be contacted at this email address

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