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Chapter 1: Exploring Data

Section 1.1
Analyzing Categorical Data
The Practice of Statistics - For AP*
STARNES, YATES, MOORE
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Chapter 1
Exploring Data
Introduction: Data Analysis: Making Sense of Data
1.1 Analyzing Categorical Data
1.2 Displaying Quantitative Data with Graphs
1.3 Describing Quantitative Data with Numbers
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Section 1.1
Analyzing Categorical Data
After this section, you should be able to
CONSTRUCT and INTERPRET bar graphs and pie charts
RECOGNIZE good and bad graphs
CONSTRUCT and INTERPRET two-way tables
DESCRIBE relationships between two categorical variables
ORGANIZE statistical problems
Learning Objectives
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Categorical Variables place individuals into one of
several groups or categories
The values of a categorical variable are labels for the
different categories
The distribution of a categorical variable lists the count or
percent of individuals who fall into each category.
Frequency Table
Format Count of Stations
Adult Contemporary 1556
Adult Standards 1196
Contemporary Hit 569
Country 2066
News/Talk 2179
Oldies 1060
Religious 2014
Rock 869
Spanish Language 750
Other Formats 1579
Total 13838
Relative Frequency Table
Format Percent of Stations
Adult Contemporary 11.2
Adult Standards 8.6
Contemporary Hit 4.1
Country 14.9
News/Talk 15.7
Oldies 7.7
Religious 14.6
Rock 6.3
Spanish Language 5.4
Other Formats 11.4
Total 99.9
Count
Percent
Variable
Values
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Displaying categorical data
Frequency tables can be difficult to read. Sometimes
is is easier to analyze a distribution by displaying it
with a bar graph or pie chart.

11%
9%
4%
15%
16%
8%
15%
6%
5%
11%
Percent of Stations
Adult
Contemporary
Adult Standards
Contemporary hit
Country
News/Talk
Oldies
Religious
Rock
Spanish
Other
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Count of Stations
Frequency Table
Format Count of Stations
Adult Contemporary 1556
Adult Standards 1196
Contemporary Hit 569
Country 2066
News/Talk 2179
Oldies 1060
Religious 2014
Rock 869
Spanish Language 750
Other Formats 1579
Total 13838
Relative Frequency Table
Format Percent of Stations
Adult Contemporary 11.2
Adult Standards 8.6
Contemporary Hit 4.1
Country 14.9
News/Talk 15.7
Oldies 7.7
Religious 14.6
Rock 6.3
Spanish Language 5.4
Other Formats 11.4
Total 99.9
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Bar graphs compare several quantities by comparing
the heights of bars that represent those quantities.
Our eyes react to the area of the bars as well as
height. Be sure to make your bars equally wide.
Avoid the temptation to replace the bars with pictures
for greater appealthis can be misleading!

Graphs: Good and Bad

Alternate Example
This ad for DIRECTV
has multiple problems.
How many can you
point out?
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Two-Way Tables and Marginal Distributions
When a dataset involves two categorical variables, we begin by
examining the counts or percents in various categories for one
of the variables.

Definition:
Two-way Table describes two categorical
variables, organizing counts according to a row
variable and a column variable.

Young adults by gender and chance of getting rich
Female Male Total
Almost no chance 96 98 194
Some chance, but probably not 426 286 712
A 50-50 chance 696 720 1416
A good chance 663 758 1421
Almost certain 486 597 1083
Total 2367 2459 4826
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Two-Way Tables and Marginal Distributions

Definition:
The Marginal Distribution of one of the
categorical variables in a two-way table of
counts is the distribution of values of that
variable among all individuals described by the
table.

Note: Percents are often more informative than counts,
especially when comparing groups of different sizes.

To examine a marginal distribution,
1)Use the data in the table to calculate the marginal
distribution (in percents) of the row or column totals.
2)Make a graph to display the marginal distribution.

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Young adults by gender and chance of getting rich
Female Male Total
Almost no chance 96 98 194
Some chance, but probably not 426 286 712
A 50-50 chance 696 720 1416
A good chance 663 758 1421
Almost certain 486 597 1083
Total 2367 2459 4826
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Two-Way Tables and Marginal Distributions

Response Percent
Almost no chance
194/4826 =
4.0%
Some chance
712/4826 =
14.8%
A 50-50 chance
1416/4826 =
29.3%
A good chance
1421/4826 =
29.4%
Almost certain
1083/4826 =
22.4%
Examine the marginal
distribution of chance of
getting rich.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Almost
none
Some
chance
50-50
chance
Good
chance
Almost
certain
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

Survey Response
Chance of being wealthy by age 30
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Relationships Between Categorical Variables
Marginal distributions tell us nothing about the relationship
between two variables.
Definition:
A Conditional Distribution of a variable
describes the values of that variable among
individuals who have a specific value of another
variable.


To examine or compare conditional distributions,
1)Select the row(s) or column(s) of interest.
2)Use the data in the table to calculate the conditional
distribution (in percents) of the row(s) or column(s).
3)Make a graph to display the conditional distribution.
Use a side-by-side bar graph or segmented bar
graph to compare distributions.

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Young adults by gender and chance of getting rich
Female Male Total
Almost no chance 96 98 194
Some chance, but probably not 426 286 712
A 50-50 chance 696 720 1416
A good chance 663 758 1421
Almost certain 486 597 1083
Total 2367 2459 4826
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Two-Way Tables and Conditional Distributions

Response Male
Almost no chance
98/2459 =
4.0%
Some chance
286/2459 =
11.6%
A 50-50 chance
720/2459 =
29.3%
A good chance
758/2459 =
30.8%
Almost certain
597/2459 =
24.3%
Calculate the conditional
distribution of opinion among
males.
Examine the relationship
between gender and opinion.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Almost no
chance
Some
chance
50-50
chance
Good
chance
Almost
certain
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

Opinion
Chance of being wealthy by age 30
Males
Female
96/2367 =
4.1%
426/2367 =
18.0%
696/2367 =
29.4%
663/2367 =
28.0%
486/2367 =
20.5%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Almost no
chance
Some
chance
50-50
chance
Good
chance
Almost
certain
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

Opinion
Chance of being wealthy by age 30
Males
Females
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Males Females
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

Opinion
Chance of being wealthy by age 30
Almost certain
Good chance
50-50 chance
Some chance
Almost no chance
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Organizing a Statistical Problem
As you learn more about statistics, you will be asked to solve
more complex problems.
Here is a four-step process you can follow.

State: Whats the question that youre trying to answer?
Plan: How will you go about answering the question? What
statistical techniques does this problem call for?
Do: Make graphs and carry out needed calculations.
Conclude: Give your practical conclusion in the setting of the
real-world problem.

How to Organize a Statistical Problem: A Four-Step Process
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Section 1.1
Analyzing Categorical Data
In this section, we learned that
The distribution of a categorical variable lists the categories and gives
the count or percent of individuals that fall into each category.
Pie charts and bar graphs display the distribution of a categorical
variable.
A two-way table of counts organizes data about two categorical
variables.
The row-totals and column-totals in a two-way table give the marginal
distributions of the two individual variables.
There are two sets of conditional distributions for a two-way table.

Summary
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Section 1.1
Analyzing Categorical Data
In this section, we learned that
We can use a side-by-side bar graph or a segmented bar graph
to display conditional distributions.
To describe the association between the row and column variables,
compare an appropriate set of conditional distributions.
Even a strong association between two categorical variables can be
influenced by other variables lurking in the background.
You can organize many problems using the four steps state, plan,
do, and conclude.

Summary, continued
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Looking Ahead

Well learn how to display quantitative data.
Dotplots
Stemplots
Histograms

Well also learn how to describe and compare
distributions of quantitative data.

In the next Section