Correlation Between two variables in your country

You will need to choose a pair of variables that are related to your own country. For example, population and crime rate in a town or average temperature and number of tourists visiting an area.

For these two variables, collect 12 pairs of observations – this will provide the data for you to analyse.

Put your data into a table and state where the data was collected from.

Think about your variables and try to predict whether there will be any correlation between them, and the type of correlation.

Look at your data and try to determine whether positive, negative or no correlation is indicated.

Scatter Diagram

Plot your pairs of observations on a scatter diagram on graph paper. Make sure that you use an appropriate scale and label on each axis.

Look at your scatter diagram and decide if the location of the data points confirms your initial guess about the type of correlation.

Mean Values

For each variable, calculate the mean value of the observations.

Quadrants

Using your mean values, apply the quadrants to your scatter diagram. Make sure that you label the mean values correctly on the quadrant lines.

Look at your scatter diagram again and decide if the location of the data points within the quadrants confirms your initial guess about the type of correlation.

Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PMCC)

Use the following formula to calculate the Product Moment Correlation Coefficient for your data:

Show all your calculations.

Conclusion

Use your calculations of the Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to explain the type and strength of correlation between your two variables. Make sure you explain what this means in terms of what happens to one variable when the other one increases or decreases.

Submission

You need to write a report to describe what you have done. Your work should include:

• introduction
• table of data
• scatter diagram
• calculation of the mean values
• application of quadrants
• calculation of PMCC
• conclusion

Notes

• All of the project must be your own work – you are required to sign an originality sheet with your submission.
• Late submissions will be treated according with the University Policy.
• Submissions by email or to the IFP Office will not be accepted.
• All written work should be word processed. Calculations may be hand-written. Graphs should be hand-drawn on graph paper – do not use MS Excel.

Marking

This project accounts for 10% of the Statistics module.

The total possible score for the coursework is 75 marks, allocated as follows: