In the United States in 1986, 48.7% of persons age 25-pluswere males. Of these males 23.8% were college graduates. In addition, 20.5% of all persons (malesand females) were college graduates. A) What proportion of persons 25-plus were female college graduates? B) What proportion of females 25-plus were college graduates?

A) 8.9%

B.) 17.35%

Step-by-step explanation:

Let X be the total number of persons age 25-plus

This means 48.7% of X are males.

Number of females become:

(100 - 48.7) x = 51.3%X

IF 23.8% of these males were graduates, then it means

23.8% * 48.7%X of these males are graduates.

0.238 * 0.487 X = 0.116X males are graduates.

That is 11.6% of persons are male College graduates.

If the question states that 20.5% of male and female were college graduates, then to answer question A, to get the number of female college graduates, it becomes:

20.5% - 11.6% = 8.9%

That means 8.9% of persons were female college graduates ...

If 53.1% of persons are females, let y be the percentage of these females that are College graduates.

Then it implies

Y * 51.3 = 8.9

Y = 8.9/51.3

Y = 0.1735 = 17.35%

This means the proportion of females that are College graduates = 17.35%