NAME: Population at Risk and Death Rates for an Unusual Episode TYPE: Complete record for all of population at risk SIZE: 2201 observations, 4 variables DESCRIPTIVE ABSTRACT: For each person on board the fatal maiden voyage of the ocean liner Titanic, this dataset records sex, age [adult/child], economic status [first/second/third class, or crew] and whether or not that person survived. SOURCE: "Report on the Loss of the `Titanic' (S.S.)" (1990), _British Board of Trade Inquiry Report_ (reprint), Gloucester, UK: Allan Sutton Publishing. VARIABLE DESCRIPTIONS: Column 1 Class (0 = crew, 1 = first, 2 = second, 3 = third) 10 Age (1 = adult, 0 = child) 19 Sex (1 = male, 0 = female) 28 Survived (1 = yes, 0 = no) Values are aligned and delimited by blanks. There are no missing values. SPECIAL NOTES: There is not complete agreement among primary sources as to the exact numbers on board, rescued, or lost. STORY BEHIND THE DATA: The sinking of the Titanic is a famous event, and new books are still being published about it. Many well-known facts--from the proportions of first-class passengers to the "women and children first" policy, and the fact that that policy was not entirely successful in saving the women and children in the third class--are reflected in the survival rates for various classes of passenger. These data were originally collected by the British Board of Trade in their investigation of the sinking. PEDAGOGICAL NOTES: These data make an interesting exercise if given to a class without their context, which the students must attempt to discover. The instructor will probably want to answer questions from the class, "Twenty Questions" style. There is a similar set of data circulating without any detailed explanation or compiler's name attached, under the same title, which omits the crew (and does not agree with any of the primary sources that I was able to find.) Credit for the original idea goes to the originator of that exercise: my version is merely an attempt to provide a more complete context. Additional information about these data can be found in the "Datasets and Stories" article "The `Unusual Episode' Data Revisited" in the _Journal of Statistics Education_ (Dawson 1995). SUBMITTED BY: Robert J. MacG. Dawson Department of Mathematics and Computing Science Saint Mary's University Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3C3 CANADA rdawson@husky1.stmarys.ca