Statistics

One study's medium Cohen's d is compatible with effects from below small to large

Cohen's d, Hedges' g and Glass's Δ all divide a difference between two means by a standard deviation, and differ in which spread they use and how they treat small samples. A single study's d usually sits inside a confidence interval that crosses more than one of Cohen's labels.

14 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Readability formulas fitted to the same readers still disagree by about a grade and a half

Flesch-Kincaid, SMOG and other readability formulas give one text different grade levels because each counts a different feature of the writing. Three formulas fitted to the same Navy readers in 1975 still disagree by a median of 1.5 grades.

12 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Generation charts disagree on a third of post-war birth years

Pew, McCrindle, the US Census Bureau and Indonesia's statistics office give different generation labels, or none, for 27 of the 81 birth years from 1946 to 2026. Singapore draws its own Pioneer and Merdeka Generation lines by birth date and citizenship date, and none of them falls on a Pew boundary.

7 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Division codes from China's Ministry of Civil Affairs survive renames and change with a place's type

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs gives province-, prefecture- and county-level units six-digit codes, and all but one of the prefecture- and county-level codes in its 2023 list sit in the number band its rules set for that kind of unit. When a code changes, why an older ID number can begin with a retired code, and where the official list is published now.

3 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Malaysia's open postcode list names 2,930 codes

MCMC's open postcode list names 2,930 Malaysian postcodes. How the first two digits mark the state, the one code outside its state's block, who owns the system, why the last three digits follow no published scheme, and the town names shared by two states.

3 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Statistics

Converting Japanese era years, and why Japanese law still names Heisei 72

Reiwa 8 is 2026: add 2018, and 1988, 1925, 1911 or 1867 for the earlier eras. The four days when the era changed and the instrument behind each, why no offset works before 1873, how the dates are written, and the 302 laws in force that still name Heisei years the era never reached.

3 Oct 2026 · 7 min read

Statistics

Taiwan's 22 counties and cities, read from the household register

Taiwan's 22 counties and cities (台灣22縣市) on the household register for August 2026: population, area and density for each, why the three provincial cities sit below the law's own floor, what Kinmen's register hides, and how 25 units became 22.

1 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

Chinese measure words ranked by how often they are actually used

How often 个 really fills the measure-word slot in Chinese text, which two dozen classifiers (量词) cover nine tenths of uses, what the HSK syllabus lists by level, and why one noun can take several. Kata penggolong bahasa Mandarin, counted.

30 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

Statistics

Hong Kong's 18 districts by population, density and council seats

Hong Kong's 18 districts (18區) on the census department's mid-2025 figures: which are most crowded, how the regions share land and people, how council seats changed in 2023, and why Sai Kung mostly means Tseung Kwan O.

30 Sep 2026 · 6 min read

Statistics

HSK 3.0 word counts by level, and how far old HSK words carry over

The syllabus the new HSK is tested on lists 11,000 words: 300 for level 1 up to 5,400 by level 6, with levels 7 to 9 sharing the rest. The often-quoted 11,092 belongs to the 2021 standard and dates from 2010. How much of the old six-level list carries over, and when the new exam starts.

30 Sep 2026 · 5 min read