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Many descriptive statistics, found in Appendix X, were gathered in our surveys. We were able to tell a lot about the differences in the two populations, and calculate averages and proportions for all of our data. The results of our study showed that the average age of a Kalamazoo College student, 20.26 years, is much younger than the average Kalamazoo citizen, 47.25 years. This finding is not out of the ordinary with our hypothesis, as it is clear that a representative population of a college will have a younger average age than a representative population of a city. The median age for the students was 20 years and the residents median age was 45 years. Household income shows a dramatic difference, as the average Kalamazoo College student's annual family income, $118,103.45, is nearly double that of the average Kalamazoo resident, $60,631.58. This estimate of the residential household income may be an overestimate due to outliers in our survey. Additionally, there may be a percentage of Kalamazoo residents that cannot afford phone service. We also feel that there is room for error in the student's annual family income because many people do not know exactly what their parents, or parent, earn. The income survey was in intervals of $10,000 and the average of each interval was used to calculate household income. The median and modeincome for the students' was $110,000 and $125,000. The residents' median and mode household income was $55,000 for both categories. The overall favorite entertainment spending activity is going to the movies for both populations. This activity includes both going to the cinema and renting movies. Kalamazoo College students voted this their favorite activity 46.55% of the time and in the resident population, 28.07%. Music entertainment, sports entertainment, and spending money on restaurants were also in both of the populations' top five favorites. The overall favorite entertainment spending activity is going to the movies for both populations. This activity includes both going to the cinema and renting movies. Kalamazoo College students voted this their favorite activity 46.55% of the time and in the resident population, 28.07%. Music entertainment, sports entertainment, and spending money on restaurants were also in both of the populations' top five favorites. These findings are somewhat close to what we hypothesized, although we thought that the student population would value restaurants more due to poor cafeteria food. We also observed that the college population tended to like more of the same things only having a total of nine favorite activities, while the residents were grouped into thirteen activities. Expenditures in the past week in the favorite entertainment activity area came out to be an interesting finding. On average the Kalamazoo College students only spent about $9.29 as compared to the weekly spending of $76.18 for the residents of Kalamazoo. These results went against our hypothesis that Kalamazoo College students have more money to spend. An explanation for these results may be that a larger portion of the students prefer to rent movies instead of going to the cinema, resulting in lower costs. Also noted is an extreme outlier in the residential data of $2500 spent within the past week on travel. If this outlier is taken out, the Kalamazoo residential expenditures quickly drop to $32.32 within the past week. The median expenditure within the past week for the students was $5, with a mode of $0. The median expenditure within the past week for the residents was $20, with a mode also of $0. When broken up into the four areas of entertainment spending specified by the U.S. Census Bureau, it appears that other variables have affected our results. Although a larger portion of the student population values movie watching, the residents have spent more on fees and admissions than the students. The residents spent, on average, $25.65 within the past week as compared to the students' average of $8.57. This could possibly be explained by family size, because the residents probably factored in the money that they have spent on their children when paying fees and admissions. This category also includes restaurants, which will be more expensive for parents to take their whole family to. Spending on electronic entertainment, on average, went to the students. This is the outcome that we expected; however, the results were not as we expected. The students spent more on average because 3 of the 58 students made up 99.33% of the total spending. Only 5 of the 58 students, or 8.62%, spent anything within the past week in this category. This is not the case with the residents of Kalamazoo, as 28.07% of the 57 people have reported spending something. We expected that with the high household income of the families of Kalamazoo College students they would be able to afford to buy more of this type of entertainment than the residents of Kalamazoo. Perhaps making this survey reach back to the entire past year would show our hypothesis to be true. The third category to entertainment spending is defined as pets, toys, and playground equipment. The residents of Kalamazoo dominated this type of spending as 12 people spent a total of $437 within the past week. Only 3 Kalamazoo College students mustered up money to spend in this category, for a total of $85. However, these results are not without an outlier in the residential spending, as one person spent $276, or 63.16%, of the total. If we account for this outlier, the average resident spending moves from $7.67 to $2.82, which is only about double the average student spending of $1.47. Spending in this area can be expected to be larger on average for residents of Kalamazoo because the only pets that students are allowed to have in their dorm rooms are goldfish. The residents also may have accounted for buying toys for their children. The very last area of entertainment spending covers all other areas such as motorized recreational vehicles, supplies, and equipment. Residents of Kalamazoo were expected to spend more on average on these goods because they are more likely to have a place to store these types of items. Our findings prove our expectations to be true, however only one person from the student population and three people from the resident population reported spending anything in this category. The total spending for the student population was $50.00 with an average of $0.86, and in the resident population the total was $101,250 with an average of $1776.32 per person. One large outlier sticks out in the data, as one resident purchased a $100,000 motor home. If this outlier is taken out, average spending for the residents drops to $21.93. The average family size of a family with a student at Kalamazoo College is 3.98, with 3.55 adults (over 18 years) and 0.43 children (under 18 years). This is a larger family size than that of the Kalamazoo residents who only average 2 adults per household and 0.79 children (note: these numbers are just averages, as you cannot have a tenth of a person). These statistics may reveal a linear relationship between income and family size, but should be studied in-depth to be certain. |