Essential Statistics
Categorical Data
Name: ________________________________
1. In a December 2000 report, the US Census Bureau listed the levels of educational
attainment for Americans over 65.
Education Level
Count(Thousands)
Create a bar graph and pie chart
No high school diploma
9,945
for this data and write a sentence
HS Diploma, no college
11,701
or two that might appear in a
Some college, no degree
4,481
newspaper article.
2 year Degree
1,390
4 year Degree
Master’s Degree
Doctorate
3,133
1,213
757
2. A study by US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) (USA Today, 22 June
2000) surveyed 1530 investigations by the US BATF into illegal gun trafficking from
July 1996 through December 1998. The study reports the portion of cases that were the
result of each of five gun trafficking violations:
46% Straw Purchase
21% Unlicensed Sellers
14% Gun shows and flea markets
12% Stolen from federal dealers
7% Stolen from residences
Create pie chart and bar graph for the data. Write a brief report on what this says about
illegal gun trafficking.
3. A zoo surveys 1,000 people to find out whether they’ve been to the zoo in the last year.
The surveyors count that 592 say yes, 198 say no, and 210 don’t respond. Create a table,
and pie chart to illustrate the distribution.
4. The number of cars sold by two salesmen each day for a week is shown below. Who is
the better salesman? Why? Show a graph to support your answer!
Matt
Jamie
5
3
7
6
6
4
5
8
7
12
8
9
6
8
Essential Statistics
Categorical Data
Name: ________________________________
5. The table below shows the number of federal prison inmates serving sentences for
various types of offenses in 1990 and 1998. Counts given are in thousands of prisoners.
a. Write a brief description of these data, in the proper context, highlighting any
important changes you see in the prison population.
b. Do these data indicate that there was an increase in drug use in the US during the
1990’s? Explain. Use a graph to help your explanation.
Year
1990 1998
Violent (murder, robbery, etc.)
10
13
Type
Property (burglary, fraud, etc.)
8
9
Of
30
63
Offense Drugs
Public Order (immigration, weapons, etc.
9
22
Other
1
2
6. A survey of college freshmen in 2001 asked what field they planned to study. The results
were 12.6% arts and humanities, 16.6% business, 10.1% education, 16% engineering and
science, 12% professional, and 10.3% social sciences.
a. What percent plan to study fields other than those listed?
b. Make a table, pie chart, and bar graph to display this data.
7. Is it true that girls perform better in the study of languages and so-called soft sciences?
Here are several advanced placement subjects and the percent of examinations taken by
female candidates in 2001: English Language/Composition, 62.86%; French Language,
70.82%; Spanish Language, 64.5%; and Psychology, 65.92%.
a. Explain clearly why we cannot use a pie chart to display these data, even if we
know the percent of exams taken by each girl for every subject.
b. Make a bar graph of the data. Order the bars from tallest to smallest.