Kim Kardashian’s tweet on death by lawnmowers vs terrorists becomes ‘statistic of the year’

A statistic tweeted by Kim Kardashian has been tagged as the International Stat of the Year! (Source: Twitter)

Did you know that more Americans are killed annually by lawnmowers than by terrorists? Shedding light on the shocking fact, Kim Kardashian tweeted out the statistics early in January this year that showed that 69 people are killed by lawmowers in contrast to 16 deaths due to terrorists. In a huge revelation, the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) recently published its first UK and International Stat of the Year, and her tweet was named the latter.

The reality TV star tweeted in response to US President Donald Trump’s migrant ban proposal, and it went viral with more than 194,000 retweets and over 370,000 likes. “Lightning, being hit by a bus and falling out of the bed” were some other reasons for death listed in the list. The RSS also said Kardashian’s tweet put the spotlight on the fact that “everyone can deploy statistical evidence to inform debate and highlight misunderstandings of risk.” Check out her tweet here.

Statistics pic.twitter.com/aSpyFuabct

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) January 29, 2017

“When you consider that this figure was put into the public domain by Kim Kardashian, it becomes even more powerful because it shows anyone, statistician or not, can use statistics to illustrate an important point and illuminate the bigger picture,” judging panel member Liberty Vittert said.

The awards that call themselves an attempt to show “how statistics can help us better understand the world around us,” gave the tag of UK’s statistic of the year to the percentage — 0.1 per cent — that represents the land area in the UK that is densely built upon.