Analyzing Categorical Data:
Sometimes it is hard to draw conclusions about data in a frequency table. To make the data easier to analyze we find either percentages of the whole (relative frequencies) or percentages of the parts (conditional relative frequencies).
We can find relative frequencies by dividing each cell by the total number of people surveyed and converting it to a percent.
The new table would look like this:
We can analyze this data and say:
- Super strength was the least popular super power, because only 5.8% of all students chose it.
- Most students would want to be able to freeze time, because 29.1% of all students chose this as their super powers
Sometimes we want to be able to analyze the data in parts. To do this we find conditional relative frequencies. We can either analyze it by rows...
This data is looking at which super power each gender prefers.
For example, we could say that:
- Females would like to be telepathic, because 30.7% of females chose that super power.
- Men would like to be able to freeze time, because 32% of men chose that super power.
We can also analyze it by column...
This data is looking at the percentages of males and females that would prefer each super power.
For example, we could say that:
- Of the people who would like to be able to freeze time, 51% were male.
- Of the people who would like super strength, only 3.8% were female.