Interpret & use our data

The age specific rate is the number of cases per person in a particular age class, usually for five year age classes up to 85, expressed per 100,000 persons per year. 

Most of our data for Tipperary hasn't been geocoded to each of the ridings. Our policy is thus to assign to the North Riding those cases that are registered in the Mid-Western Health Board, and to the South riding those that are registered in the South-Eastern Health Board

The rates are pre-calculated to 14 decimal places at the registry, rounded down to two decimal places and then uploaded to the website.

When you add the rates for all the tumours yourself, or using the websites "All Cancers Combined" facility, you are dealing with figures which have been rounded to two decimal places. Because of this, a rounding error creeps in, which is not present in the total rates supplied by the website which were originally calculated to 14 decimal places before being rounded down. 

The rates are pre-calculated to 14 decimal places at the registry, rounded down to two decimal places and then uploaded to the website.

When you add the rates for all the counties you are dealing with figures which have been rounded to two decimal places. Because of this, a rounding error creeps in, which is not present in the rates supplied by the website which were calculated to 14 decimal places and then rounded down. 

There are four types of behaviour:

Benign

A benign tumour is usally a slow-growing tumour that may displace but does not invade or infiltrate surrounding tissue; a tumour considered not to have malignant or invasive potential.

In-Situ

An in-situ tumour is one with malignant potential which has remained confined to the tissue in which it originated.

The Registry tries to make as much data as possible to the public. However we are bound by our Confidentiality Policy and cannot release to the public any information which might identify a particular individual. Thus we use different configurations to allow us to provide as much data as possible without compromising the privacy of a citizen.