How should we express figures so that readers can easily understand them? On signs, readers are often expected to know all the specialized codes, with no effort to make those codes clear to the average person. In financial decisions, enormous figures sometimes receive scarcely any notice while minor expenses provoke furious debate. Large numbers need comparisons, or else conversion to a more understandable form: The average taxpayer pays 100 euros annually for police services. According to Auli Kulkki-Nieminen, in plain language, only the most important figures are exact; other information is rounded off or otherwise summarized: 26 130 square kilometers becomes 25 000 square kilometres; 54 per cent of women becomes more than half of women. While precise figures imply reliability, the essential thing is that the reader can grasp what the figures mean.