Detailed Discussion of the Example

This information is found by reading the graph title, looking at the number of sectors in the circle, and reading the labels for the different sectors. Graph Title --The graph title is Expenditures for State and Local Governments. This tells us the graph will look at parts to whole relationships of expenditures for state and local governments. Expenditures for State and Local Governments Sectors --The circle is cut into four sectors, each representing one category of expenditures, with the percentage of the total for each category.

Expenditures for State and Local Governments

Sector Labels --The circle is split into four sectors: (1) the largest is an Other category, 45%, (2) next largest is Education, 34%, (3) next is Public Welfare, 14%, and (4) the smallest is Highways, 7%.
 

If we look at the graph, we can see that 7% of the total is spent on highways. To determine the amount of money spent on highways, we need to find 7% of $50,000. This is a proportion problem. (NOTE: If you do not know how to calculate proportions review the Proportions unit in the second tutorial of this series).

So 7% of the total spending, or $3,500, was spent on highways.

State and local governments spent approximately 5 times more on education than on highways.

We first look at the circle graph to identify the two sectors we need to compare. These are highways, which is 7% of the total, and education, which is 34% of the total. To determine how much larger one is than the other we set up the ratio:

This ratio is 34:7. We now perform the division indicated and find the ratio is 4.87:1, or approximately 5 to 1. This means that approximately five times more is spent on education than on highways.

For this question, we want to find the how much is spent on highways and welfare combined. We also want to report this as a fraction of the total. This can be represented as:

If we combine, or add, highways and public welfare, we get 7% + 14% = 21%. So we have 21% out of 100%.

Since the question said approximately we can try to find a fraction simpler than 21/100. You may recall that 20/100 is 1/5 so our answer is 1/5.

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