MATH IS HARD!

From today's New York Times:

...Despite the violence that has plagued Iraq since the American occupation began three years ago, its schools have been quietly filling. The number of children enrolled in schools nationwide rose by 7.4 percent from 2002 to 2005 ...

The increase, which has greatly outpaced modest population growth during the same period, is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape ...

... According to American government estimates, Iraq's population grew by about 8 percent to 26 million from 2002 to 2005. ...

Just to summarize: 7.4 percent "greatly outpaces" 8 percent.

Got it.

(Actually, the overall numbers given elsewhere in the story do seem to indicate a big jump, 27%, in attendance at secondary and high schools, but an increase in primary-school attendance, 5.7% -- 3.5 million to 3.7 million -- that doesn't even keep pace with the population increase. I don't know where the hell 7.4% comes from. Would it kill The Greatest Newspaper in the World to get hold of the raw numbers and hand them to an intern on 43rd Street who knows how to check them with a calculator?)