Final answer:
The sixth decile of income distribution cannot be calculated with the given info, as the question relates to quintiles, not deciles.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer to which decile the sixth decile of the income distribution corresponds to cannot be determined from the information provided. Instead, we have information on how to calculate the share of total income that each quintile receives from a given income distribution.
By ranking the households from lowest to highest income and dividing them into quintiles (each quintile containing 20% of the households), we can assign the income to the respective quintile. Then, the share of total income for each quintile can be calculated.
To illustrate, if we were to take the list of incomes $24,000, $18,000, $50,000, $100,000, $12,000, $36,000, $80,000, $10,000, $24,000, and $16,000, first we would sort them, then split the list into quintiles (groups of two, since there are ten individuals).
We would sum the incomes in each quintile and then calculate the percentage they represent out of the total income.
By comparing the quintile distributions of the example group to that of the U.S. income distribution for 2005, we may observe whether the top and bottom quintiles have a greater or smaller share.
It is noted that in the example, the top quintile has a smaller share and the bottom quintile has a larger share compared to the U.S. income distribution, indicating a more equal distribution in the example.