Are lawnmowers a greater risk than terrorists?
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In December 2017 the Royal Statistical Society announced the winner of its “International Statistic of the Year”. The statistic was simply "69" which it said was "the annual number of Americans killed, on average, by lawnmowers - compared to two Americans killed annually, on average, by immigrant Jihadist terrorists". Contrary to the statement in the Royal Statistical Society citation, the figures directly comparing numbers killed by lawnmower with those killed by Jihadist terrorists, do NOT ‘highlight misunderstandings of risk’ or ‘illuminate the bigger picture’. They do the exact opposite as we explain here.