The New York Times reported in 2004 on the "Values Gap" in the United States by comparing a variety of percentages. For example, the number of divorces per 1,000 married people was 15 in Nevada and 6 in Massachusetts, whereas the number of abortions per 1,000 births was 30 in New York and 20 in Washington.14 Four statistics students are asked to tell which difference, if any, is larger: the one for divorces or the one for abortions. Whose answer is best?
Adam: So, 15 minus 6 is 9, and 30 minus 20 is 10. The difference is larger for abortions. Brittany: But 9 and 10 are close enough that we can say the difference between them is negligible. Really the situations are comparable for divorces and for abortions.
Carlos: They're talking about divorces per thousand, out of millions of married people, or abortions per thousand, out of millions of births. So 10 is actually much larger than 9- the difference is definitely larger for abortions. Dominique: To put things in perspective you have to look at proportions: 0.0015 is more than twice as big as 0.0006, and 0.0030 is only half again as large as 0.0020. The difference in divorce rates is actually larger than the difference in abortion rates.