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My own understanding rests squarely on
will sharpen your mind on
Aug 4, 2009 17:36
14 yrs ago
4 viewers *
English term

Significant Minority

English Other Other
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3478573/S...
'Significant minority' failing at maths despite £2.3bn investment

Almost a quarter of 11-year-olds left primary school last year with a poor grasp of numeracy, said the National Audit Office.


http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2003/BHI-Significant-Minorit...
Despite its commercial success, a significant minority of people who require insulin experience problems when using BHI, and need old-fashioned animal insulins to survive.

Thank you in advance for your help and advice.
Responses
4 important minority (group)
4 +9 A minority, but one of considerable size
4 +4 less than half, but still quite a large number
4 a substantial number
3 -1 unique minority

Discussion

B D Finch Aug 5, 2009:
Mathematical? Yes, it is a reference to the numbers involved, I wouldn't describe that as "mathematical", statistics is the only branch of mathematics that would be relevant here. However, I was probably not clear enough. When I wrote that it "does not just mean a lot of people", I meant that it **does** mean quite a lot of people and that this number is large enough to matter and should not be disregarded or written off ...
Armorel Young Aug 5, 2009:
Not statistical but still mathematical B D, I agree with you that the term is not being used in the sense of "statistically significant", but I nevertheless think that it is being used in a sense that is (albeit loosely) mathematical in the sense that it refers primarily to the quantity of people involved.
B D Finch Aug 5, 2009:
Statistical significance or not? I believe that "significant" is being used somewhat loosely here and does not mean statistically significant. It is journalism after all. However, the idea of statistical significance underlies it in the sense that it is so significant that a statistical test to show it is significant is completely unnecessary. A "significant minority" does not just mean a lot of people, it means that this is a minority that cannot be disregarded e.g. on the grounds that there will always be some failures, or that they are exceptions who prove the rule. It means that the minority matters, with the implication that something can and should be done about it.
Shera Lyn Parpia Aug 4, 2009:
you said "But in this period the number of 11-year-olds achieving the standard expected of their age only increased from 72 to 77 per cent"
That means that those who did *not* achieve it decreased from 26 to 23 percent, which is still a significant minority.

Responses

13 mins
Selected

important minority (group)

When using this expression "significant minority", writer is attempting a play on words, since in most cases one would expect "significant majority." By using this he/she indicates that, in the first example, it implies an IMPORTANT small section of students (11 year olds) have a poor grasp of math after leaving primary school.
In the second example, the use of significant minority refers to a small yet IMPORTANT group of people need an older form of insulin than BHI.

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Note added at 39 mins (2009-08-04 18:16:34 GMT)
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Mm. In the first example of 11year olds it may still mean that this group, compared to the whole population of students, is still relatively (percentage-wise) small, even though the group itself may be significant.
I think the same may apply to the dog example, albeit that it is not as clear, and even somwhat confusing, maybe because of your "vomit" example. It is a smaller, yet important group of dogs that require investigation. Not sure how the vomit vs. regurgitation example exactly fits into this.
Example sentence:

Important minority of people failing at maths...

Note from asker:
Thank you very much for the explanation. However it is still confusing because in the 1-st article they wrote further: "But in this period the number of 11-year-olds achieving the standard expected of their age only increased from 72 to 77 per cent." Thus it appears to be a rather big group of students/pupils. Can it be about their age? I mean "minority". I got other samples : "Significant minority of dogs and most of the cats require the investigation" " In significant minority of dogs the "vomit" actually will be the "regurgitation" however the owners described it as vomiting"
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to everybody! Peter was the first who offered the help and actually I believe now that his explanation was correct - considering all other suggestions and corrections."
21 mins

a substantial number

Amongst many other
Something went wrong...
+4
35 mins

less than half, but still quite a large number

A minority means less than 50%.

A tiny minority would be a very small proportion - e.g. just 1% or 2% of the total, whereas a "significant" minority is a reasonably large number (although still less than half the total).

In this case a quarter of all 11-year-olds have poor maths results - a quarter is a "significant" (fairly large) proportion of the total, although it is less than half.

"Significant" in this sense is seen in a mathematical sense (relating to the size of the number) - it has nothing to do with how "important" the people concerned are. (I would see an "important minority" as being a minority that it is important to consider, regardless of the actual number of people involved.)
Peer comment(s):
agree cmwilliams (X)
13 mins
agree George C.
49 mins
agree kmtext
13 hrs
agree Tony M
1 day 3 hrs
Something went wrong...
-1
43 mins

unique minority

a minority which can be distinguished by its special characteristics
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : Does not correspond to the correct meaning of the term asked.
1 day 3 hrs
Something went wrong...
+9
35 mins

A minority, but one of considerable size

"A minority" might be one percent or 49%. The use of the word "significant means it is much closer to the latter.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-08-04 19:42:21 GMT)
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Thank you for the compliment, but it is not deserved. I am not a brilliant translator into Russian, in fact I am not a translator into Russian at all, I only translate from Russian into English. If I had to suggest something I would say "существенное меньшинство", but ask the English-Russian translators in ProZ.com.
Note from asker:
Thank you very much, Jack. I know that you are a brilliant translator into Russian. I would be really grateful if you propose your version of this confusing for me expression (in Russian). And this document (I mean about the dogs and cats - other are the result of my research) has been written by UK based professor. Please kindly see the examples in Peter's answer. I greatly appreciate your help.
Peer comment(s):
agree Shera Lyn Parpia
11 mins
Thank you.
agree cmwilliams (X)
13 mins
Thank you.
agree Sherin Khullar (X)
19 mins
Thank you.
agree Olga B
43 mins
Thank you.
agree George C.
49 mins
Thank you.
agree jccantrell : Yep, a MAJORITY of the minority group, I might say.
2 hrs
Thank you.
agree Jenni Lukac (X)
3 hrs
Thank you.
agree kmtext
13 hrs
Thank you.
agree Tony M
1 day 3 hrs
Thank you.
Something went wrong...
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