Make sense of data.

As a marriage counselor, you have gathered the following statistics:

a. The average age at which women marry for the fi rst time has increased by 1.5 years in the last decade.

b. The average age at which men marry for the first time has increased by 2.5 years in the last decade.

c. The number of people getting married for the first time has dropped by 13% in the last decade.

d. The number of divorces has increased by 22% in the last decade.

e. The average number of years couples remain married has decreased by 2.8 years in the last decade.

f. The number of people who were divorced more than once has increased 26% in the last decade.

g. The number of women between the ages of 20 and 50 entering the work force has increased by 12% in the last decade.

h. The number of men between the ages of 20 and 50 entering the work force has decreased by 8%.

i. The amount of debt for married couples has increased by more than 31% (an alltime high) during the last decade.

This is a lot of data, but what does it all mean? In groups of four or five people, discuss possible answers to the following questions. What trends can be identified in the data? What could the trends mean? How do the pieces of data relate to each other? Could one factor be causing another? If so, which ones? Before drawing any conclusions, what additional information would be helpful? What kind of visual aid would be best for showing these changes in the last decade?