I
chose a large dataset
that details currently married men and women around the world. This
dataset is provided courtesy of the United Nations data site,
compiled in 2012, and reaching back to pull data from as far as the
1970's.
2. Describe
the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?
In
this dataset, it's possible to see the amount of men and the amount
of women married in the different countries of the world. It's broken
down into age categories, time periods, and sex (men/women), as well
as whether or not the numbers include consensual unions (the unions
that are not formally recognized by dominant laws). The UN also
provides great detail on the further areas of the population that
have been excluded from the dataset, and other limitations such as
low census return rates.
3.
Is there anything about your data that you don’t understand? How
will you find this out?
One
thing I'm not certain of with this dataset is whether the numbers
represent a percentage of that age group within the population, or
something else. I have this doubt because of the ridiculously high
numbers in certain populations. 96% of men aged 40-44 in 2008 in
Afghanistan seems steep. Conversely, it's confusing to see that only
80% of women in the same place, year, and age bracket are married. I
think this might be explained by the ratio of men to women being
lopsided, but it's something I'll have to explore.
4.
What are some questions you hope to answer with your data? List at
least
three.
To
start, I'd like to know which country/year/age/sex has the highest
number of married people, and which has the lowest. That's the
obvious stuff. I'd like to contrast first world countries with each
other, and also with third world countries. I'd like to compare
European countries with North American countries, as well, to see if
I can find a discernible difference that might be attributed to
different cultural practices. I'm also interested in finding out
which countries have the highest ratios of men to women married,
because, as noted above, there are discrepancies there that intrigue
me. Finally, I'm interested in answering the question of how marriage
rates in different countries have changed over time.
