1.7 Going solo
Activity 2 Going solo
(a) A radio programme reported the following:
‘Our “Going solo” survey of 4000 single people found that only one in five people are happy on their own.’
Write ‘one in five’ as a fraction, a decimal and a percentage. Which form do you think is easiest to understand?
Comment
What does one in five mean? For every five people interviewed, one of these said they were happy on their own. Write this as fraction first.
Answer
(a) ‘One in five’ can be written as 
or 
, as well as 
.
The report could have said ‘one-fifth’ or ‘20 per cent’ of people in the survey, but ‘one in five’ makes the proportion easy to visualize for people not comfortable with fractions and percentages. Which form is easiest to understand depends on your way of thinking.
Remember, all of these express the same number, although ‘0.2 of the people’ would probably not be used, because it’s much harder to visualize and put in context.
(b) How many of the 4000 ‘Going solo’ survey participants seem to be content with being single?
Comment
You know that it’s one-fifth of the group, and remember: ‘of’ means ‘multiply.’
