Political online game and economic simulation

For this case as well as your other recent bug report one could give almost the same answer. Hence, I save some time and elaborate my response in this thread, while giving only a short reply in the other one.

Data displayed in the average state section is occasionally nice for the sake of comparison, but it should not be interpreted as a state in sum. This is simply due to the fact that all of this is based on averaged data, taken from states within a narrow time frame roughly equivalent to the current quarter of your state. You are probably aware of the fact that occasionally here and there a crash occurs, and here lies the inherent problem of averaged values. In particular a singular, yet extreme values tend to ruin entire statistics.

I start with a moderate case as example why the average state should not be considered representative. Take 3 states:

• State A has a GDP of 7 000 Bil. € and a positive Balance of +1 000 Bil. €
• State B has a GDP of 10 000 Bil. € and a slightly negative Balance of -1 000 Bil. €
• State C was subject of experiments by its regent, and about to face exitus. It has a high GDP of 100 000 Bil. € and a massive debt of -450 000 Bil. €

The average state based on these values would have a GDP of 39 000 Bil. €, and a debt of 150 000 Bil. € (almost 4 times the GDP!). I did not calculate the debt rates, but by eye it is easy to see how big they should be round about (like -140%) and that it will not match with the other values.

Looking trough my history, I tried to find a state with some values that would ruin the statics in your example. Unfortunately, I did not have a good match with respect to GDP and debt. Nonetheless, this one should be a good example for debt rate. Once the crash occured, the GDP practically went down to zero. In that sense, this state will have little influence on the average. The debt rate is, however, at 34,220.52 % (Even when averaged with 1000 other states, this will still add a positive 34% on top of the average debt rate).

You see, it is not really a bug, but just a mathematical problem. The developers are aware of it, but there is not much one can do about it. Even if you use a median, you do not get rid of all effects on these numbers.