Question

During his lunch hour, Matt asked 24 students how many after-school activities they participated in. This list shows

the survey results.
Results: 1,2,0,0,3, 2, 4, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2,
1,1,2,1,0,3,3, 2, 4, 1, 1, 0
What is the ratio of the number of students not participating in an activity to the total number of students surveyed?
What can you infer from this data?

Answer 1

As you can see, 4 of the 24 students don't partecipate in any activity. This clearly implies a ratio of 4:24, or 1:6.

We could infer that this ratio holds for the whole school, or even for all the boys and girls of that age.

That's the point of surveys and inferring: you gather data about a relatively small group, and then assume that the proportions you have are valid for a much larger group.

That's why it is important that the group that you survey is balanced and unbiased.