The numbers in thousands by gender and marital status of the

The numbers (in thousands), by gender and marital status, of the 2004 (J.S. population aged 15 and over are shown in the next table. Answer the following questions based on the information given in the preceding table. a Find the conditional distribution of marital status for females. b Find the conditional distribution of marital status for males. c Is marital status independent of gender? Is it necessary to find both conditional distributions to answer this question? Justify your answers.

Solution

(a)

The conditional distribution of marital status given gender is female is

Marital Status

Never Married

Married

Widowed

Divorced

Total

Conditional frequency

45765.04

122430.92

21554.35

24771.74

214524

(b)

The conditional distribution of marital status given gender is male is

Marital Status

Never Married

Married

Widowed

Divorced

Total

Conditional frequency

61187.59

129332.05

5466.54

18537.81

214524

(c)

Since the conditional frequencies of marital status given male and female varies by a great extent we cannot say that the two attributes are independent. Hence according to the given data marital status is not independent of gender.

The conditional distributions are obviously necessary to answer this question.

Marital Status	Never Married	Married	Widowed	Divorced	Total
Conditional frequency	45765.04	122430.92	21554.35	24771.74	214524