Author: Margo Coleman-Seiffert
Company: UMUC

STAT200 - Assignment #1: Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Plan

Identifying Information
Student (Full Name):
Class: 
Instructor: 
Date: 

Scenario: Please write a few lines describing your scenario and the four variables (in addition to income) you have selected.
I’m a 35 years old parent with a single kid and the highest academic qualification is a diploma in accounting. As a parent, I have been spending more on impulse buying despite my merger earnings in order to make my kind happy. Hence, I have been having problems in paying the rent and my daughters fee. Also huge loans are chasing my small salary therefore I need to budget for my household expenditure.  

Use Table 1 to report the variables selected for this assignment. Note: The information for the required variable, “Income,” has already been completed and can be used as a guide for completing information on the remaining variables.

Table 1. Variables Selected for the Analysis

Variable Name in the Data Set

Description
(See the data dictionary for describing the variables.)

Type of Variable 
(Qualitative or Quantitative)

Variable 1: “Income” | Annual household income in USD. | Quantitative
Variable 2: “marital status” | Marital Status of Head of Household | Qualitative
Variable 3: “Family Size” | Total Number of People in Family (Both Adults and Children) | Quantitative
Variable 4: “USD-Food” | Total Amount of Annual Expenditures on Food | Quantitative
Variable 5: “USD-Fruits” | Total Amount of Annual Expenditure on Fruit | Quantitative

Reason(s) for Selecting the Variables and Expected Outcome(s):
1.	Variable 1: “Income” – this variable will enable me to see how people within my income range spend their money.
2.	Variable 2: “ marital status “ –households spend differently depending on marital status. Being not married I expect my budget to be different from married families. 
3.	Variable 3: “ family size“  - the larger the family the high the expenditure. Hence, I feel my family size will have high impact on my budget.
4.	Variable 4: “ Food “  - I selected this variable since I feel that I’m spending more on food.
5.	Variable 5: “ Fruits “  - my daughter has health issues so she should be fed more fruits. I need to budget for this.

Data Set Description:

Proposed Data Analysis:  
Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion
Complete Table 2. Numerical Summaries of the Selected Variables and briefly explain why you choose those measurements.  Note: The information for the required variable, “Income,” has already been completed and can be used as a guide for completing information on the remaining variables.

 Table 2. Numerical Summaries of the Selected Variables
Variable Name | Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion | Rationale for Why Appropriate

Variable 1: 
 “Income”

●	Number of Observations
●	Median
●	Sample Standard Deviation

I am using median for two reasons:
1.	If there are any outliers or the data is not normally distributed, the median is the best measure of central tendency.
2.	The variable is quantitative.

I am using sample standard deviation for three reasons:
1.	The data is a sample from a larger data set.
2.	It is the most commonly used measure of dispersion.
3.	The variable is quantitative.

Variable 2: “marital status”

∞	Number of observations
∞	mode

I’m using number of observations since I would like to know how much on average unmarried families spend on various items.
The variable is qualitative hence no other approach

Variable 3: “family size”

∞	number of observations
∞	range 
∞	mean

I’m using range because I would like to know the how big is the gap between the largest and smallest value. On the other hand, I will use mean since its mostly used and its assumes that all variables are equal.

Variable 4: “food”

∞	mean
∞	standard deviation

I will use mean for the following reasons: -
∞	it is widely used in estimating.
∞	Its easy to compute and understand
∞	And very accurate especially if the data is normally distributed.
I will use sample standard deviation because: -
∞	It tells us how values are deviating from the mean.
∞	The variable is quantitative.

Variable 5: “fruits”

∞	Mean
∞	Mode 
∞	Median
∞	Standard deviation

I will use the three measures of central tendency because: -
∞	Mean and median are used alternatively in case the data is skewed.
∞	Mode will tell me which the most likely expenditure is depending on what others have being spending
Sample standard deviation will be used because: -
∞	The data is a sample from a larger data set.
∞	It is the most commonly used measure of dispersion.

Graphs and/or Tables
Complete Table 3. Type of Graphs and/or Table for Selected Variables and briefly explain why you choose those graphs and/or tables.  Note: The information for the required variable, “Income,” has already been completed and can be used as a guide for completing information on the remaining variables.

Table 3. Type of Graphs and/or Tables for Selected Variables

Variable Name | Graph and/or Table | Rationale for why Appropriate?

Variable 1: 
 “Income”

Graph: I will use the histogram to show the normal distribution of data.

Histogram is one of the best plot to show the normal distribution of quantitative level data.

Variable 2: “marital status” | Graph: I will use bar chart to show the number of unmarried and married couples in the sample | Since the data is qualitative, the best graph is bar graph to show the how many families are unmarried.
Variable 3: “family size” | Graph: I will use box plot | Box plot will clearly show the five-number summary hence calculating the range will be easy.
Variable 4: “food” | Graph: I will use the histogram to show the normal distribution of data | This will in knowing how the data is distributed and which measure of central tendency is applicable.
Variable 5: “fruits” | Graph: pie chart | It compares qualitative data using quantitative data.This will show clearly how much each family size spends on fruits.