Quételet’s average (wo)man

In the EuroStar last morning, I got attracted by my neighbour headline’s about average and went to pick a spare copy at the head of the train:

The article is awfully written, mixing nonsensical figures (like “the average British woman, who is 40, enjoys an extra half-day work each week”!!!) with a few remarks about the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is supposed to celebrate the first World Statistics Day but there is very little to celebrate if this is the vision of statistics this day promotes. Are we back to Quételet‘s quest for the “average man”?!