Stat-Spotting by Joel Best

Author:Joel Best
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: University of California Press

LOOK FOR

Surprisingly large or small percentages

EXAMPLE: NEVER-MARRIED TWENTYSOMETHINGS

A newspaper story begins: “Almost three-quarters of men and almost two-thirds of women in their 20s in 2006 said they had never been married.”10 The percentages–73 percent for men, and 62 percent for women–were higher than the comparable figures from 2000–64 percent and 53 percent, respectively.

Certainly it is the case that more young people are delaying marriage. The median age at first marriage during the period 2000–2003 was 26.7 for males and 25.1 for females.11 These ages are markedly higher than in the past. In 1956, for instance, age at first marriage for both sexes hit its post–World War II low–22.5 for men, 20.1 for women.

Nonetheless, saying that three-quarters of males and two-thirds of females in their twenties have never been married conveys a somewhat misleading impression. One’s twenties range from age 20 to 29. These days, getting married at 20 or 21 seems less wise than it once did. We might expect that a relatively large percentage of both men and women now remain unmarried through their early twenties, but that marriages increase in their later twenties. In fact, this is shown by the data used as the basis for the newspaper story: the great majority of those age 20–24 report never having been married (87 percent of males, 79 percent of females); however, much lower percentages of those age 25–29 remain unmarried (58 percent of males, 46 percent of females).12 In other words, if we asked what percentage of people remain unmarried throughout their twenties, the answer would be much lower than if we asked–as the newspaper reporters did–what percentage of people in their twenties have never been married.

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