I track a lot of gratuitous numbers

Here at Plastics News we keep a database of plastics-related companies. Over the years we've added names from news releases and market reports. In all, 5,842 companies have been tracked in our database. 2,506 have been ranked over the years.

For 535 of them, we have recorded name changes or acquisitions. One company has 26 entries on that list. Sigma Plastics Group and Berry Global Inc. are the two highest ... but you could have guessed that from reading our published articles alone.

When we graph data, we need to consider what story we want to tell:

535 of 2,506 as 21 percent is much more meaningful. Just having a name on a list isn't the same as having processing details confirming operations.

Instead, we could highlight name-change frequency like this:

The average number of alternate names is 3.5 per company, but because the skew is wide, meaning the highest is 26 the lowest is two, the median comes in at three. For those of you playing along at home, the median is the split number where half the records are lower and half are higher.

Using averages as a communication tool is subjective. Here is an example: If you earn $10 dollars an hour and your boss earns $1,000, the average salary at your firm is $505 per hour — how accurate is that? Can your new hires expect to see rates above $500?

But back to our company name focus: 5,307 don't have any recorded alternate names.

So our factoid could confirm the stability of company names like this:

“Most firms don't have recorded name changes”

Before logging out, here are a few more gratuitous numbers compiled from our ranking records:

• 372 unique firms were ranked thermoformers.

• 1,044 unique firms were ranked injection molders.

• 341 pipe, profile and tubing extruders.

• 188 rotational molders.

• 302 film & sheet manufacturers.

• 259 blow molders.

Keep checking this blog for more statistics, numbers and news tidbits uncovered during our rankings and lists research.