Question

The Census Bureau annually estimates the percentage of Americans below the poverty level for various geographic areas. Use the information in the following table to answer the questions below.

Percentage of Americans Below the Poverty Level, Averages for Southern and Western Regions, 2008-2009

South	Percentage	West	Percentage
Alabama	15	Alaska	10
Florida	14	Arizona	20
Georgia	17	California	15
Kentucky	17	Idaho	13
Louisiana	16	Montana	13
Mississippi	21	Nevada	12
North Carolina	15	New Mexico	19
South Carolina	14	Oregon	12
Tennessee	16	Utah	9
		Washington	11

      Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, 2008-2009

a.   What is the range of poverty rates in the South? The West? Which is greater?

b.   Create two frequency distributions, one for each region. Again, be sure to include columns for frequencies, proportions, percentages, cumulative frequencies and cumulative percentages.

c.   Calculate the standard deviation for each region. Which region appears to have more variability by this measure?

     

Answer 1

I will not be able to answer part (b) since it is not clear from the question which frequency distribution you want, because normal frequency distribution and cumulative frequency distribution are different. May be, you cane make a more clear question of what you need exactly. So, we cant put both frequency distributions in the same graph. I will answer part (a) and (c)

(a)

For south, maximum percentage is 21 and minimum percentage is 14. So, range is 21-14=7

For west, maximum percentage is 20 and minimum percentage is 9. So, range is 20-9=11

So, range for west is high

(c)

I will use standard deviation formula, which is given by,

Using this formula, we get that standard deviation for South is=2.14735

standard deviation for west is =3.627059

So, using this formula, we can see that the West region is having higher variability