As is so often the case (pun intended), these statistics are being used incorrectly by a biased party.
In 2007 4.8 billion passengers flew (Airports Council International, World Airport Traffic Report 2007). Assuming the average passenger has one bag (some have more than one, some nil), this means that the baggage mishandling rate was one in 114 (just under 1%) but the total loss rate at one in 4,800 (0.02%). (The report states one in 2,000; I'm not sure how they got to that figure).
If you were to fly once a week you would, on average, have a bag mishandled about once every 26 months, and lose a bag every 7 years. If you are a 'normal' holidaymaker and your flight rate is four times a year, the mishandling is now once every 26 years and lose one every 91 years.
Add to that that the definition of 'mishandled' is not given, but I suspect it is any kind of delay even if the bag is quickly returned (I had a bag sent to me from lHR to BOH which arrived 2 hours after I managed to get there).
I reckon that most other industries would be very hard pushed to come up with a system that, over thousands of airports and millions of journeys ensures that 99.1% of the time you will get your bags (with 25-30% of the time a transfer involved) and 99.98% of the time you'll see them again.
Ll