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

Solution symbolActivity: Using a Table

From the table you constructed in the previous activity, work out the following:

(a) The percentage of visitors that are children.

Solution symbol

Answer

(a) Eighteen out of the 47 visitors are children. So the percentage of visitors that are children is given by: number of children divided by total number of visitors multiplication 100 percent equation left hand side equals right hand side 18 divided by 47 multiplication 100 percent almost equals 38 percent (to the nearest whole number).

(b) The percentage of visitors that come from outside Ireland.

Solution symbol

Answer

(b) 17 visitors were Irish. So the number of visitors that came from outside Ireland is 47 minus 17 equals 30. (You might have determined the number of non-Irish visitors by adding the totals from other regions: sum with, 3 , summands 14 plus four plus 12 equals 30).

So the percentage of visitors from outside Ireland is given by: number of non minus Irish visitors divided by total number of visitors multiplication 100 percent equation left hand side equals right hand side 30 divided by 47 multiplication 100 percent almost equals 64 percent (to the nearest whole number).

(c) Why is it helpful to calculate percentages here? What other calculations might be useful?

Solution symbol

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

11.3 Graphs and Charts