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Principles
When using statistics and data to illustrate points, such as making comparisons over time or between areas, understanding relationships, illustrating trends and finding patterns, we should:
- consider the level of accuracy necessary to make the point addressed;
- give the reader an appropriate amount of information;
- provide the information at a sufficient level of precision, but no more.
Instructions
Rounding numbers
Big numbers are difficult to read, and rarely contain additional informational value beyond the first two or three significant figures. In general, we should:
- round numbers in the body of the text (67 billion), unless making a comparison (output increased marginally from €66.7 billion to €67.3 billion); (we follow the convention of rounding down for numbers ending in 1, 2, 3 and 4 and rounding up for numbers ending in 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9).
- round numbers, but allow for a greater level of precision in tables in the text (66 624 million).
- For tables with whole numbers, identify the smallest number, decide how many significant digits to show for this number, and then round all other entries accordingly.
- When presenting several indicators in the same table, we should present all whole figures and relative quantities with the same number of significant digits (In some situations, the use of decimals can be important due to the precision they bring for exchange rates, error rates etc.);
- and present unrounded numbers from data sources in tables in annexes (66 624 486 101).
Authors should apply these rules consistently to avoid different levels of precision within the same section of text, table or annex. It may be useful to add an explanatory note describing how we present our figures, such as the rounding conventions used. As a general rule, we should round percentages to a maximum of one decimal place. However, it is not usually necessary to show numbers after the decimal point for percentages which are higher than 70 % (unless meaningful for a direct comparison). For percentages in the text we should use (a maximum of) one decimal below 10 %, no decimals above 20 % (unless required for comparison purposes) and, depending on the level of precision required, either one or no decimal between 10 % and 20 % (15 % VAT or 15.3 % of total cost).
Currencies
For currencies which we refer to most frequently (euro, dollar, pound) use symbols (If your keyboard does not have these symbols, you can find them in word documents under “Insert – Symbol", or use the Alt key and 0128.) preceding the amount without a gap (€120, $270, £300), except when combining the currency with words without presenting a figure (millions of euros). For other currencies, write out names in lower case, after the number (fifty zlotys, one thousand forints), in plural where appropriate.
Numerals versus words
In a phrase with words, use ‘to’, but in a phrase with figures, use a hyphen (15-20 years but four to five weeks). When referring to a range of years, we write the years in full (2014-2020 programming period).
Numbers can be written either as words (one hundred), or as numerals (100). The basic rule is to spell out numbers from zero to nine, and thereafter use either numerals, or a combination of words and numbers (ten million, 120 billion etc.). This is true for both cardinal numbers (two, 11) and ordinal numbers (second, 11th). However, there are some exceptions. We should use:
- figures for numbers from zero to nine which are followed by a precise unit of measurement (5 %, 7 cm, 5 kg or 9 metres);
- figures where two numbers in a range fall above and below nine (9 to 11, not nine to 11);
- figures with million, billion and trillion (3 million);
- figures with seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years (5 seconds and 9 years) but not with decades and centuries (three centuries);
- figures for votes and ranges denoted by a hyphen, and numbers that form part of a series (5 declarations were in favour, 3-9 projects, Chapter 9);
- figures for all numerals that include a decimal separator (4.25 or 4,25);
- figures for numbers consisting of an integer and a fraction (8 ½, not eight and a half);
- words for any number starting a sentence (Seventy-two thousand bottles are sold every day. Fiftyfive million euro was spent on…). To avoid this, consider inverting the word order (Of the total, €55 million was spent on…);
- words for simple fractions without an integer (one third), even when the numbers used are higher than 10 (one twelfth). Only hyphenate when used as an adverb or adjective (an increase of one twentieth but a one-twentieth increase); and
- consistent use of figures or words with hundred and thousand (300 or three hundred, but not 3 hundred).
While fractions are as precise as decimals or percentages, this may not be readers’ perception. We should use fractions for approximate figures, or where precision is less important (around one-third of errors are caused by coding mistakes), and decimals for more exact or specific ones (the coding error was 34 %).
Words should be used for thousand, million, billion and trillion. However, the conventional abbreviations (m for million, bn for billion and trn for trillion) can be used in tables to save space.
Decimal and thousands separators
A comma decimal separator (25,3 million) should be used in documents published in the Official Journal, such as [link title="opinions" link="%2Faware%2Fopinion%2FPages%2Fdefault.aspx" /]
. In publications that are not published in the Official Journal (annual report, specific annual reports, special reports, reviews, EU audit in brief and activity reports) a point decimal separator is used in the English and Maltese versions of the document (25.3). Before completing a document, it is advisable to make a specific check of this, particularly when material has been copied from other sources.
Whole numbers up to 999 should be presented without spaces. Whole numbers of 1 000 and more should be presented in series of three figures, separated by hard spaces and not by a point or a comma (€243 872).
Resources
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[icon-list-item title="Eurostat%20tutorial%3A%20rounding%20of%20numbers" link="https%3A%2F%2Fec.europa.eu%2Feurostat%2Fstatistics-explained%2Findex.php%2FTutorial%3ARounding_of_numbers" description="for%20more%20rules%20on%20presenting%20numbers%20and%20other%20related%20topics." icon="external-link" linking="new-window" /]
[icon-list-item title="More%20examples%20on%20presenting%20numbers" link="%2Faware%2FDocuments%2FPresenting-numbers-examples.docx" icon="file-word-o" /]
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