PEI provincial government expenditures were 58985 billion in
P.E.I. provincial government expenditures were $58.985 billion in 2009. A breakdown of that spending is given below:
Category Spending ($billions)
Health 22.0
Interest on Debt 9.997
Social Services 7.504
Elementary & Secondary Schools 7.315
Colleges & Universities 3.390
All other departments 8.779
Use ratios to answer the following questions.
(a) How much of the budget is spent on interest on the debt (%)?
(b) How much of the budget is spent on education (%)?
(c) How does spending on Colleges & Universities compare to spending on Elementary & Secondary Schools (ratio in lowest terms)?
(d) How does spending on Colleges & Universities compare to spending on Health (ratio in lowest terms)?
Solution
(a) Amount spend in interest on debt = 9.997 billions
Expressing it as a fraction or ratio of total expenditure = 9.997 / 58.985
Multiplying this with 100 will give the percentage contribution.
So, budget spend in interest of debt = (9.997 / 58.985) x 100 % = 16.95 %
(b) Amount spend in education = 7.315 + 3.390 = 10.705 billions
Similarly,
budget spend in education (%) = (10.705 / 58.985) x 100 % = 18.15%
(c) Amount spend for colleges & universities = 3.390 billions
Amount spend for elementary & secondary schools = 7.315 billions
So the required ratio = 3.390 : 7.315
= 3390 : 7315 (multiplying both by 1000)
= 678 : 1463 (dividing by all possible common factors, here 5)
(d) Similarly,
here the required ratio = 3.390 : 22.0
= 339 : 2200
