Political Misuse of Statistics Busted

With parliament elections only a few months away the Finnish magazine Suomen Kuvalehti has brought the “truth-o-meter” to Finland. Today they do an excellent data driven story on the political statements regarding asylum seekers, one of the hottest topics in the elections this year. They beautifully and brutally manage to bust the argumentation of the populist candidate Jussi Halla-aho.

According to Halla-aho the number of asylum seekers have quadrupled, which is true. Sort of (I take the liberty of borrowing the graphs from Suomen kuvalehti):

However, it is also, sort of, true that the number of asylum seekers have dropped dramatically:

However-ever, one could also say that this has been the development:

You choose your own reality.

Great job Kuvalehti.