It’s been said facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable. In other words, statistics mean never having to say you’re certain. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was famously credited for lumping in statistics with lies and damned lies.

Given the number of humorous quotes about statistics, it’s tempting to make up a statistic about quotes about statistics. I’d estimate 67 percent of them are funny.

Joking aside, I’m a big fan of statistics. They’re a useful tool for the editor of a business journal to report important news. But like any tool, statistics must be used properly. Otherwise, there’s the potential for abuse and, ultimately, deception. There’s the matter, too, of context.

All this comes to mind as I report the latest statistics for real estate activity and tax collections in Mesa County. Judging solely by the proportional gains from May 2020 to May 2021, real estate sales and tax collections have increased by jaw-dropping amounts. 

Real estate transactions increased 58.2 percent on a year-over-year basis, while the dollar volume of those transactions jumped 74.5 percent. As for sales tax collections, the City of Grand Junction reported a 61.2 percent increase and Mesa County reported a 42.2 percent increase. 

Then there’s my personal favorite. Year-over-year lodging tax collections in Grand Junction jumped in May a whopping 189.8 percent. Now, I don’t have any idea exactly how big an increase is required to reach the whopping level, but it’s got to be a lot. Right?

Considered by themselves, those statistics create a paint-by-numbers picture of a red-hot economy.

Of course, those statistics offer only part of the picture. Thankfully, real estate activity and tax collections have increased in Mesa County. But the gains for May 2021 were so big in part because the numbers for May 2020 were so small.

Think back to a year ago and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions. For a time, real estate showings and open houses were prohibited. More people were hunkered down at home than traveling and staying in hotels and motels. That’s part of the context to consider, the asterisk forever attached to comparisons between 2021 and 2020.

Fortunately, statistics offer more accurate assessments the larger the sample size and the longer the term involved.

Consider, for example, real estate activity in May 2021 topped May 2019. And by the end of 2019, the number of transactions climbed in Mesa County to its highest level in more than a decade. The same thing holds true for tax collections, which in May 2021 topped those for May 2019. That’s context, too.

Statistics can be funny things. In every sense of that word, I suppose. But here’s yet another quote that’s both funny and true: 99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story