Teaching statistics to the rest of humanity

Statistics is taught widely in the UK as an element of mathematics up to age 16. Over a quarter of a million children taking examinations involving statistics or mathematics with statistical elements. At the age of 18 the examinations involving the use of statistics show a different pattern. Some 50 thousand pupils take statistics or mathematics with statistical elements, but over 100 thousand take examinations in geography, biology, psychology, etc. involving significant elements of statistics. Thus the prime interest in statistics comes not from those with a specialist interest but from the "rest of humanity" who need statistics to support their other interests. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the implications of this fact.