As is always the case with statistical estimates, including those in the Australian Cancer Atlas, every estimate has a degree of uncertainty, or imprecision, around it. The larger the uncertainty associated with an estimate, the less convincing it is that this is close to the true value.
Even though the cancer statistics are based on the total population, rather than a sample, there is still ‘uncertainty’, because these counts vary from year to year, or from area to area. The smaller the number, the larger this inherent uncertainty is.
In the Australian Cancer Atlas, the level of uncertainty for all relative measures is shown in three ways, the V-plot, the wave plot and the level of transparency. Please refer to the e-book for further details about these plots and their interpretation.
