OXFORD — Eighty professional basketball players have come from Mississippi. Among the earliest was Cleveland Buckner from Yazoo City back in 1962. That’s trivia. People like trivia.

One in every 76,883 Mississippians plays in the NFL. Per capita, that ranks us second only to Louisiana. That’s a statistic. People like statistics, too.

We all accept that trivia is valid information, but not crucial.

But when it comes to statistics, which may also contain valid information, we tend to attach too much significance, especially in this state.

Almost every day some news person cites a statistic showing Mississippi first among the worst or last among the best. Collectively, we mourn our poverty, our disease rates, our obesity or our teen pregnancy rate. Collectively, it gives us one giant inferiority complex.

The press has a long-standing love affair with number-based rankings, including those that compare states or men and women or any group to any other group. Numbers feed our natural competitiveness. We use them to draw conclusions — even when we shouldn’t.

For instance, even the most uncoordinated among us might walk around with our chests puffed out based on the proportion of Mississippians who are professional athletes. Which we take to mean we’re tougher, stronger and more agile than other folks.

There might be many other factors influencing the statistic, but we glob onto the most obvious, which is usually the most flattering. We have more churches than anyone, for example, which we take to mean there will be more Mississippians in heaven. Great writers come from Mississippi. Great musicians do, too. We take that to mean we are more talented than other people.

But it’s risky to use such statistics, which are usually averages, to draw conclusions, broad or narrow. A good illustration is that a person with one arm in the oven and the other in the freezer is, on average, comfortable in terms of temperature.

Mississippi is 48th in many rankings including average teacher pay ($40,182), percentage of people 25 or older with at least a bachelor’s degree (25 percent) and doctors per capita. (North Dakota and South Dakota pay their teachers less; Arkansas and West Virginia are behind us in college degrees and Idaho and Oklahoma have fewer doctors per resident.)

California pays teachers, on average, a lot more ($63,640), but consider the cost of rents and median home prices (and the fact that Californians owe more in terms of state debt than many nations) and the numbers gain perspective.

Mississippi is in the middle when it comes to violent crime. We’re 33rd. Maine is the “safest” state and South Carolina is the “most dangerous.” That’s what statistics say, but the reality is crime is highly localized. Doubtless there are some places in Maine that are less safe than other places in South Carolina.

According to official government figures, Mississippians are 12th in per capita energy consumption. In today’s eco-sensitive world, someone might take that single ranking and make a speech containing all sorts of conclusions. Some might be valid, but others would be pure conjecture. (Alaskans are No. 1, and it’s no great mystery why. But Rhode Islanders use the least energy. What would explain that?)

The average annual pay in Mississippi is $32,291 compared to a national average of $44,458 and a New York average of $59,439. Granted, it would be better to be higher on the scale, but many factors are relevant — competition for jobs, housing and utility costs, tax rates and much more before conclusions can be drawn about quality of life.

There are seven Sam’s Clubs in Mississippi and 73 in Texas. We have 60 Walmart Supercenters and Walmart’s 24,264 employees in Mississippi are paid an average of $12.46 per hour.

Numbers.

They’re everywhere.

Beware those who offer them as “proof.”

But more specifically, we’d be well-advised not to dwell on averages, to let them be the do all to end all directing our thoughts, opinions and actions.

After all, as my undertaker friend reminds me, the mortality rate for all Mississippians stands at 100 percent.

That statistic, if no other, reminds us that we’d better get busy doing stuff that matters more than fretting over numbers.

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Charlie Mitchell is a Mississippi journalist. Write to him at Box 1, University, MS 38677, or e-mail at cmitchell43@yahoo.com