About the TravelStatsMan data desk
TravelStatsMan is a small data desk with one job: to find the surprising numbers behind travel and transport, check them properly, and explain them in plain language.
The site collects the kind of travel statistics that stop you mid-scroll — the cost of a gigabyte of data around the world, how much baggage the airlines lose, what an Olympic medal is actually worth. The point is never the shock value on its own; it is to trace each figure back to a real source and show the working.
What the data desk covers
The archive spans the whole business of moving people and goods: aviation and airlines, airports, rail and public transport, hotels and short stays, passports and border rules, tourism and destinations, and the prices travellers pay around the world. Some entries are one-off investigations — the value of a repaint on a wide-body jet, the melt value of an Olympic medal, the coins pulled from the Trevi Fountain — while others are tracked year on year, such as the Henley passport ranking or the steadily falling global price of a gigabyte of mobile data.
Every report keeps its original publication date, so a 2016 figure is read as a 2016 figure rather than passed off as today's. Newer editions of a recurring study are published as new reports rather than quietly overwriting the old ones, which keeps the history intact and lets a trend be read across the years.
How every figure is verified
Every statistic on the site is traced to a primary or authoritative source — a government or transport agency, an international industry body (such as SITA, IATA, ICAO or the IOC), an operator's own financial disclosure, or a peer-reviewed study. The source and its year are printed next to the number so a reader can check it independently.
Where a figure is a point-in-time fact, the original figure is kept and labelled with its year rather than restated as if it were current. Where a number can only be estimated, the report says so, shows the basis for the estimate, and never dresses it up as a measured fact. When a figure is derived from more than one source, the arithmetic that ties them together is set out in the open rather than hidden behind a round headline number. When a widely repeated claim does not hold up to checking, the report says that too — and several figures inherited from older write-ups were corrected on exactly those grounds.
Corrections and estimates
Figures are refreshed when a newer primary source is published; historical facts keep their original date and context. If a number here looks wrong and a reader can point to a better source, that is exactly the sort of correction the desk wants to make.
Citing the statistics
Journalists, researchers and students are welcome to cite the figures published here, and many already do. When quoting a statistic, it helps to link to the specific report it appears on rather than the homepage, so readers can reach the underlying sources and see the exact year the figure refers to — figures move over time, and the date is part of the fact. Interactive pieces, such as the mobile-data world map, carry a ready-made embed snippet for use on other sites. Source suggestions and corrections are always welcome.
Independence
The data desk is editorial and independent of the travel services it writes about. Where the site points to a commercial option — a travel eSIM, for example — it is because it is genuinely relevant to the data on the page, not because of who is mentioned.