"Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census"
About this Quote
The subtext is quietly modern: we live in an age that wants the benefits of “data-driven” decision-making without the friction of actually counting everyone. A census is expensive, slow, and exposes uncomfortable truths about who gets missed. Sampling, by contrast, sounds sleek: efficient, rational, optimized. Lowe’s phrasing lets that efficiency read as moral virtue. “More effective” becomes a value statement as much as a methodological one, implying that full enumeration is quaint bureaucracy while sampling is smart governance.
Context matters because “census” is never just about numbers; it’s about representation and resources. Who is counted determines political power, funding, and visibility. That’s why the appeal to statisticians is doing double duty: it launders a distributional fight through technical language. The line also captures a broader cultural habit: outsourcing legitimacy to experts while keeping the pitch conversational. It’s not anti-intellectual; it’s expert-flavored reassurance, designed to settle an argument before it starts.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lowe, Rob. (2026, January 15). Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sampling-statisticians-have-told-us-is-a-much-152184/
Chicago Style
Lowe, Rob. "Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sampling-statisticians-have-told-us-is-a-much-152184/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Sampling, statisticians have told us, is a much more effective way of getting a good census." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/sampling-statisticians-have-told-us-is-a-much-152184/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




