I'm conducting an analysis of survey data. The below tables (note - data is made up!!) shows, of each education category, the percentage of males and females. For example, of those with high school degree, 40% are male and 60% are female (40%+60% = 100%). The table also shows the standard errors and confidence intervals. The goal is really to just try to get at the reliability of the proportions. Two questions:
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I'm not very familiar with SEs and CIs around proportions. Does it make sense to show the SEs and CIs around the proportions of females and males each individually when the proportion of female+male = 100%? Is there anything inherently wrong with this table?
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Does it make sense to compare the CIs across any of these categories? I'm under the impression that one needs a statistical test to deduce statistical significance.
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Thanks in advance for any help. (Note - cross posted to statsexchange but no responses)
Male | Female | |||||
Education | Weighted proportion | SE | 95% CI | Weighted proportion | SE | 95% CI |
Graduate or professional | 70% | 2.0% | 64%-75% | 30% | 1.3% | 25%-35% |
Bachelors | 65% | 1.0% | 45%-70% | 35% | 1.0% | 30%-40% |
Associate’s | 55% | 1.2% | 50%-65% | 45% | 1.6% | 40%-50% |
Some college, no degree | 45% | 2.0% | 40%-50% | 55% | 1.7% | 50%-60% |
HS graduate | 40% | 1.3% | 30%-50% | 60% | 1.2% | 55%-65% |