11.2.4 Analyzing the Tourist Table
Here is the table from the previous page that you have just constructed.
Origin and Age Categories of Hotel Guests
Child | Adult | Senior | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Irish | 8 | 5 | 4 | 17 |
British | 4 | 6 | 4 | 14 |
Mainland European | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
Rest of the world | 6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
Total | 18 | 18 | 11 | 47 |
Activity: Using a Table
From the table you constructed in the previous activity, work out the following:
(a) The percentage of visitors that are children.
Answer
(a) Eighteen out of the 47 visitors are children. So the percentage of visitors that are children is given by: (to the nearest whole number).
(b) The percentage of visitors that come from outside Ireland.
Answer
(b) 17 visitors were Irish. So the number of visitors that came from outside Ireland is . (You might have determined the number of non-Irish visitors by adding the totals from other regions: ).
So the percentage of visitors from outside Ireland is given by: (to the nearest whole number).
(c) Why is it helpful to calculate percentages here? What other calculations might be useful?
Answer
(c) Percentages indicate the proportion of guests in each category, so, for this sample of data, just over a third of the visitors were children. This sort of information may be useful for marketing or development purposes. Many other calculations can be made such as the percentage of seniors or the percentage of visitors from mainland Europe. Percentages also make it much easier to compare the data in different categories than looking at the raw numbers alone.
If you would like more practice interpreting tables, try the following exercise on temperatures in Jamaica [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
11.2.3 Constructing Your Own Tables