• Home
  • About Us
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us

National Institute of Cheer

Back Off Man! We're Scientists.

You are here: Home > Archives for Wisdom

Average Age of Balcony Smoking Poll Participants (Sample 1)

Every once in a while, you are doing a survey to measure one thing and you wind up getting some extra bonus information. I like to think of this as the “loose change in the seat cushions” of the survey world.  In the case of the survey on attitudes about balcony smoking  smoking on Holland America Lines’ cruise ships, we got some loose change in terms of the average age of the survey participants.

By the way, if you haven’t taken the survey, you can up until noon EDST on Friday, August 1, 2014. Just use this link.

Bear in mind that this calculation was based on the first wave of survey respondents and that it is not an exact representation of the total Holland America demographic. It simply calculates the average age of the survey participants +/- 2.5 years. The demographic data was self reported, but we were only asking for an age range, not a specific age. The age range question method tends to get reasonably accurate responses.  (An explanation of the methodology appears after the table.)

The average survey participant is about 58 1/2 years old.

Age Group   Average   Percentage   Years  
21 – 30 25.5   1%   0.255  
31 – 40 35.5   3%   1.065  
41 – 50 45.5   12%   5.340  
51 – 60 55.5   34%   18.870  
61 – 70 65.5   41%   26.855  
71 – 80 75.5   8%   6.040  
81 – 90 85.5   0%   0.000  
Average Age: 58.425  

Methodology: For each age range, we can make the assumption that the average person in the range is at the midpoint, or average age for the range.  For example, for the 51 – 60 age group, you would take all 10 of the possible ages in the group and add them together.

(51 + 52 + 53 + 54 + 55 +56 + 57 + 58 +59 + 60) = 555

Divide that total (555) by the number of choices (10) and you get a midpoint/average age for the range of 555/10 = 55.5. It works the same for each range. These are the values you see in the 2nd column of the table.

The third column shows the percentage of respondents who were in that range.  (This data comes from the Intermediate Readout Report for the Balcony Smoking survey here.)  If we multiply the Average Age (Column 2) by the Percentage of respondents in that age bracket (Column 3), we get the number of years that particular bracket contributes to the total (Column 4.)

Add up the numbers in Column 4 and you get the Average Age of the participant. I stated the number as being within 2.5 years in either direction to account for potential error.

July 31, 2014 by POA1 Science, Travel Holland America, Smoking, Wisdom

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.

~ Ernest Hemingway

Orbital Platform Omicron – Status

  • The National Institute of Cheer's Orbital Platform is currently in geosynchronous orbit over Fort Lauderdale. 26.0908599 N and 80.1159533 E.
  • All systems are currently operational and in code GREEN.
  • The soup of the day is Heirloom Tomato Bisque

Search The Institute

Brought To You By

Cake: It's not only the "Breakfast of Champions", it's "What's for Dinner",

Copyright © 2011 - © 2023 · by The National Institute of Cheer, a SkyPad Solutions Group Byproduct. All rights reserved.