Whether or not people notice the importance of statistics, they use them in their daily lives. Statistics plays an increasingly important role for different cohorts of people, from the farmer to the academician and politician. For example, Cambodian farmers produce an average of three tons of rice per hectare, approximately eighty percent of the Cambodian population are farmers, at least two million people support Party A, and so on. According to the University of Melbourne, statistics are on the verge of making conclusive estimates about the present or predicting the future (University of Melbourne, 2009). Due to their importance, statistics are used for different purposes. Statistics are not always reliable, but they depend on reliable factors such as the sample, data collection methods, and data sources. This essay will explain how people can use statistics to present facts or to mislead others. Next, it will discuss some of the criteria for reliable statistical interpretation. Researchers, professionals, and others use statistics to prove their claims or findings. Even if statistics are not an absolute fact because the conclusion is drawn mainly from a sample – representative of a specific population subjected to research, it is commonly used as a basis for decision-making or alternation of choice in the daily life, studies, works, scientific research, politics and other planning. The inventor of a documentary film called “An Inconvenient Truth,” Mr. Al Gore, for example, in his climate change education campaign, used statistics to alert people to the fact that everyone on earth pollutes the environment and should help solve the problem. the problem. He collected data from many different countries with middle of paper......street and lies. It depends on how it is used, collected and analyzed. Therefore, readers should understand what reliable statistics are. Yet statistics are very important in enabling researchers, scientists, students, employers and individuals to make decisions as well as prove scientific claims or theories. Works CitedBraid, JH (2003). How can statistics lie? Retrieved February 4, 2011 from N Turfgrass: http://turf.unl.edu/extpresentationspdf/BairdStats.pdfInternational Republican Institute. (2010). Cambodian public opinion survey. Phnom Penh. Rosenberg, M. (2010, 11-17). China's one-child policy. Retrieved January 31, 2011 from About.com: http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/onechild.htmThe University of Melbourne. (2009). What are statistics? Retrieved January 30, 2011 from StatisticalConsulting Center: www.scc.ms.unimelb.edu.au/