Counts vs. Percentages

It is often difficult to analyze a crosstabulation simply by looking at the simple counts in each cell. The fact that there are more than twice as many PDA owners in the $25,000–$49,000 income category than in the under $25,000 category may not mean much (or anything) since there are also more than twice as many people in that income category.

  1. Open the Crosstabs dialog box again. (The two variables should still be selected.)
  2. You can use the Dialog Recall button on the toolbar to quickly return to recently used procedures.
    Figure 1. Dialog Recall tool
    Dialog Recall tool
  3. Click Cells.
    Figure 2. Crosstabs Cells Display dialog box
    Crosstabs Cells Display dialog box
  4. Click (check) Row in the Percentages group.
  5. Click Continue and then click OK in the main dialog box to run the procedure.
Figure 3. Crosstabulation with row percentages
Crosstabulation with row percentages

A clearer picture now starts to emerge. The percentage of people who own PDAs rises as the income category rises.

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