Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School Name: hiken ( )

Date: Class:
IGCSE Statistics Project Result:

IGCSE Statistics Project

Overview:
In this project, you are expected to use statistics to investigate the relationship of prices and earnings of
different cities in 2015. An extract of the database from ‘UBS Prices & Earnings 20151’ will be
provided to you. The data for 71 major cities in the world is included in the database.

Instructions:
1. You will need to use Excel and Word as well as an equation editor to help you complete this
project.
2. Type out your results and findings in the spaces provided in each step. Explain in sentences
clearly, using only the data and information given in the project.
3. Use Excel to help you produce the relevant graphs. Remember to label each graph with an
appropriate title as well as their axes. Check the scale to ensure the data is displayed
appropriately. Axes can sometimes be truncated to display the data better, but may not be
suitable for all kind of graphs.
4. When calculating statistical measures, show your steps together with the formulae.
5. Print and hand in the project when completed.

Deadline: ______tues_________

1
"UBS Prices & Earnings 2015." UBS, 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
<https://www.ubs.com/microsites/prices-earnings/edition-2015.html>

Page 1 of 17
A. iPhone and Big Mac

On sheet 1 of the spreadsheet, you will find the working time required to buy a 16GB iphone 6 and a
Big Mac for different cities in 2015, which can be taken as indications of the price level in each city.
Your aim is to compare Hong Kong’s data with other Asian cities as well as with the rest of the world.

1. Find out the cities that are in Asia and complete the table below. (Hint: there are 16 cities that
are in Asia on the list.)

Working time required to buy Working time required to buy

Cities (Asia) iPhone 6 16GB, net (x hours) Big Mac, net (y min)
1 bangkok 149.6 37.5

2
Beijing 217.8 42

3 doha 69.9 17.9

4 dubai 55.8 16.7
5 Hong kong 51.9 8.7
6 jakarta 468 66.7
7 Kuala lumpur 136.3 23.5
8 manama 62.7 19.5
9 manila 334.2 87.5
10 mumbai 349.4 39.8
11 New delhi 360.3 49.7
12 seoul 57.2 17.7
13 shanghai 163.8 35.3
14 taipei 69.2 13.4
15 Tel aviv 75.3 20.8
16 tokyo 40.5 10.4
Tota 2661.9 507.5
l

2. What graph would be suitable to display the data above? Use Excel to produce suitable
graph(s). Attach them here:

Page 2 of 17
 Working time required to buy iPhone 6 16GB, net (hours)
500

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
i r i i l i i
ko
k ng ha ba ng ar
ta
pu
a ila ba lh ou ha e vi
v
ky
o
g e iji do du ko k m n am an m de se g ta
ip la to
an B ng ja lu a m u w an Te
b
Ho la m m
Ne sh
a
Ku

Working time required to buy Big Mac, net (min)

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
ai r i i l i i
ko
k ng ha ng ar
ta
pu
a ila ba lh ou ha e vi
v
ky
o
g iji do du
b
ko am an de se g ta
ip la to
n Be
ng ja
k
lu
m a n m um an Te
ba m m
Ne
w
sh
Ho a la
Ku

3. Calculate the mean working time required to buy an iPhone 6 in Asia. Show your steps below.

Page 3 of 17
 Mean working time required to buy an iPhone 6 (Asia):

2661.9
= 166.36875 hours
16

4. Use the Excel function to find the mean working time required to buy a Big Mac. Find the
mean of the two variables for the world statistics, too.

Mean working time required to buy a Big Mac (Asia):

31.7

Mean working time required to buy an iPhone 6 (World):

119.2

Mean working time required to buy a Big Mac (World):

27.1

5. Find the median and interquartile range (IQR) of the working time required to buy an iPhone 6
in Asia. Explain your method in finding them and show your steps below. You can use the table
below to re-order your data.

Working time required to buy

Cities (Asia) iPhone 6 16GB, net (x hours) Explanation and method:
57.2
Page 4 of 17 51.9
62.7
69.2
1 bangkok 149.6
Beijing 217.8
2
3 doha 69.9
4 dubai 55.8
5 Hong kong 51.9
6 jakarta 468
7 Kuala lumpur 136.3
8 manama 62.7
9 manila 334.2
10 mumbai 349.4
11 New delhi 360.3
12 seoul 57.2
13 shanghai 163.8
14 taipei 69.2
15 Tel aviv 75.3
16 tokyo 40.5

Median: 105.8

Interquartile Range (IQR): 277

6. Some other statistical measures are calculated below:

Median (iPhone, World, exc. Buenos Aries) = 65.95 hours
IQR (iPhone, World, exc. Buenos Aries) = 143.7 – 43.3 = 100.4 hours

Median (Big Mac, Asia) = 22.15 min

IQR (Big Mac, Asia) = 40.9 − 17.2 = 23.7 min
Median (Big Mac, World) = 19.2 min
IQR (Big Mac, World) = 33.7 – 13.4 = 20.3 min

Construct appropriate boxplots for these data. You may use the following website to create
them: http://www.imathas.com/stattools/boxplot.html
Attach them here. (Hint: Think about the axes if you want to compare the boxplots)

Page 5 of 17
Page 6 of 17
Page 7 of 17
7. Using the data, calculations and graphs from part 2-6, comment on your findings. (Reminder:
your aim is to compare Hong Kong’s data with other Asian cities as well as with the world.
You can also compare data of Asia with the world)
Big Mac
hong Kong VS asia: Hong Kong needs the most minutes of work to buy a Big Mac with
8.7.

asia VS world: More minutes of work are required to buy a big mac in asia

iPhone 6 16GB
hong kong VS asia: Hong Kong needs the second most working time to buy an iphone at
51.9 hours.

asia VS world: asia requires more working time

Page 8 of 17
8. (a) What are the problems encountered in the calculations in part 2-6?
(b) What are the problems of using cities instead of countries? What are the problems of using
only these cities to represent the world?
(c) How can these be improved?
(a)
There was no data for busnose areis

(b) does not account for possible inequalities within the country, not an accurate/valid
data source

(c) use countries instead

Page 9 of 17
B. Earnings

On sheet 2 of the spreadsheet, you will find different earning indicators of the same set of countries.
Your goal is to find out the relationship amongst the various earning indicators.

1. Construct a scatter plot of (a) the average hourly earning against the earning of a primary
school teacher, and (b) the average hourly earning against the average working hours per year.

Average hourly earning against the earning of

a primary school teacher
Primary school teacher earnings (USD)

120000

100000

80000

60000

40000

20000

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earnings (USD)
At tach the two
graphs here:

Page 10 of 17
 Average hourly earning against the average
working hours per year
3000
Average working hours per year

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earnings (USD)

2. By only looking at the graphs, comment on the correlation of the variables and the distribution
of data on graph (a) and (b).

Positive coreelation in a

weak negative/No correlation b

3. By using the Excel function, find the coefficient of correlation of the variables of (a) and (b).
Comment on them and give your interpretation of the relationship amongst the different earning
indicators.

A 0.949
B -0.34511

Page 11 of 17
4. For which graph is it meaningful to find the regression line? Why?
A because b is clearly weak, a’s regression line represents the overall data in a more
precise manner

5. Use the Excel function to add it on the graph and attach below the new graph with the
regression line labeled.

Average hourly earning against the earning of

a primary school teacher
Primary school teacher earnings (USD)

120000

100000

80000

60000
Regression line
40000

20000

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earnings (USD)

Page 12 of 17
6. Use the equation to estimate the other variable when the average hourly earning is 15.5 USD.
Compare the estimate with Hong Kong’s data and comment on that.
Regression equation: y=2367.8x – 4236.6

where x represents average hourly earning (USD)

and y represents Primary Teacher Earnings (USD).

Calculation for the estimate:

When x = 15.5, y = 32464.3

Compare with Hong Kong’s data:

HK Primary Teacher Earnings is 56764.4 USD, approx. 1.5x the average

7. Use the equation to estimate the other variable when the average hourly earning is 50 USD.
Comment on the differences in this and the previous estimate, as well as the reliability of the
two estimations.
Calculation for the estimate:
When x = 50, y = 114153.4

Comment:
50 is not within range, we need to extrapolate the original regressin line in order to get its
estimate however we don’t know if the correlation bprimary teacher earnings and average
earning per hour will continue to behave in the same strong positive way as the average
earning per hour further increases outside of our data
Page 13 of 17
We are simply assuming the correlation will always be constant
Page 14 of 17
C. Earnings and Prices

On sheet 3 of the spreadsheet, you will find different earning and prices indicators. Your goal is to find
out how earning may affect the price levels or vice versa.

1. Construct a scatter plot of (a) average hourly earning against the price level index and (b)
average hourly earning against another price indicator. You may choose from any variables on
sheet 3.
2. Repeat step 2 to 6 (if meaningful) from part B. Find out how earnings and prices are related and
explain. You can include earlier findings in part A and B for your investigation and
explanation.
3. (Optional) You may produce more graphs or calculate other statistical measures should you feel
the need to.

1a)

Average hourly earning VS Price level index

120

100
Price level index

80

60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earning (USD)

i) positive correlation
ii) y=1.364x + 44.71
iii) Meaningful to find regression line as it shows the positive correlation between the two
variables
iv)

Average hourly earning VS Price level index

120

100
f(x) = 1.3640047036671 x + 44.7103536364257
Price level index

80

60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earning (USD)

v)

Page 15 of 17
 Regression equation: y = 1.364x + 44.71

where x represents average hourly earning (USD)

and y represents Price level Index (USD).

Calculation for the estimate:

When x = 15,5, y = 65.852

Compare with Hong Kong’s data:

HK’s Price level Index is 72.9, which is 7 higher than the estimated amount

1b)

Average hourly earning VS Price of food (USD)

800
700
600
Price of food (USD)

500
400
300
200
100
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earning (USD)

i) Weak positive correlation

ii) Y= 8.5955x + 271.7
iii) Not meaningful, weak correlation, regression line represents data less prescisely

iv)

Page 16 of 17
 Average hourly earning VS Price of food (USD)
800
700
600
Price of Food (USD)

f(x) = 8.59552183861826 x + 271.695173068127

500
400
300
200
100
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Average hourly earning (USD)

v)

Regression equation: y = 8.5955x + 271.7

where x represents average hourly earning (USD)

and y represents Price of Food (USD).

Calculation for the estimate:

When x = 15.5, y = 404.93025

Compare with Hong Kong’s data:

HK’s price of food (USD) is 510.7, which is about 100 higher than the estimated amount.

Page 17 of 17