this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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[–] Fish@midwest.social 41 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I highly doubt that Norwegians consume the 2nd most tacos. If there was actual data on this subject then I think that we would probably find that the US consumes the most tacos, followed by Mexico.

Mexico's population is about 40% the size of the US population. There are also a lot of Mexicans living in the US, and there are Taco Bells everywhere.

[–] Liz@midwest.social 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

After the first stat it's probably normalized to population.

[–] TurtleJoe@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I would think that to be the case, but he final line stating the population of Norway implies that these aren't rates, but total numbers.

[–] ArtieShaw@fedia.io 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You're right, of course. But I think it's equally plausible that the original writer didn't really grasp the difference and mixed some things up.

[–] Amanduh@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Can you eli5 the stat normalization thing? I failed stats in college fyi

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There's two ways to count things. You can measure total consumption, or consumption per capita (per person). If the group of 100 people eats 1000 tacos, you could report it as 1000 tacos eaten, or 10 tacos eaten per capita.

The later is more useful when comparing between groups of different sizes. The US likely consumes more total tacos than Norway, just because the population is so much larger. If we adjust for the size of the population (divide the total by the population size), Norway may be higher —if we assume the OP is correct and this is what they meant.

[–] Amanduh@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago
[–] FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Let's assume Norway has 5 million people and the US has 300 million people, and they're going to have a taco eating contest.

If every American eats 1 taco, that's ~300 million tacos eaten. If every Norwegian eats 30 tacos, that's "only" 150 million tacos eaten (30 x 5mil = 150mil).

If we're talking about total tacos eaten, Norway "loses" the eating competition. But that's not really fair because the US has 60x more people participating.

If we're talking about tacos per person (aka normalizing for the population), Norway wins the competition because each person ate 30x more tacos than the average American.

So, which country eats more tacos? The answer depends if you're counting total number of tacos eaten, or average number of tacos eaten per person (aka per capita).

[–] Amanduh@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago
[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

I would take on the whole of Norway in a taco eating competition as long as I can choose the tacos.

I wouldn't win, but I'd get as many tacos as I wanted.

[–] witx@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I was thinking, no way they have France or Italy beaten in absolute coffee consumption. We are quite addicted to coffee and there's 10x more of us