Population Ratio

BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

This topic has expert replies

Post new topic Post Reply

Previous Topic Next Topic

mytentoryours: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:00 am

Population Ratio

by mytentoryours » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:13 am

Hi there I remember coming across a question in my recent GMAT test which went as follows;

Population - 6,754,000
Ratio M:F - 14:9

The question was how many males are there and what percentage of the population are females?

Thank you so much.

Quote

Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:13 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

Anurag@Gurome: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3835; Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:00 pm; Location: Milpitas, CA; Thanked: 1854 times; Followed by:523 members; GMAT Score:770

by Anurag@Gurome » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:33 am

mytentoryours wrote:Hi there I remember coming across a question in my recent GMAT test which went as follows;

Population - 6,754,000
Ratio M:F - 14:9

The question was how many males are there and what percentage of the population are females?

Thank you so much.

I'm afraid you don't remember the numbers properly.
Because the total population (6,754,000) is not a multiple of (14 + 9) = 23.
Hence, the number of males and females will not be integer which is impossible.

Anurag Mairal, Ph.D., MBA
GMAT Expert, Admissions and Career Guidance
Gurome, Inc.
1-800-566-4043 (USA)

Join Our Facebook Groups
GMAT with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/272466352793633/
Admissions with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/461459690536574/
Career Advising with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/360435787349781/

Quote

mytentoryours: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:00 am

by mytentoryours » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:41 am

Apologies sir,

Would you be able to give me an example of how to solve the problem with a valid data set?

That would be greatly appreciated.

Quote

GMAT/MBA Expert

Anurag@Gurome: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3835; Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:00 pm; Location: Milpitas, CA; Thanked: 1854 times; Followed by:523 members; GMAT Score:770

by Anurag@Gurome » Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:25 am

mytentoryours wrote:Would you be able to give me an example of how to solve the problem with a valid data set?

Let us take an example question like "The population of a town is 6,250,000. If the ratio of number of males to number of females in the town is 14:11, how many male are there in the town? Also, what percentage of the population are female?"

Ratio of male to female is 14:11
Hence, in each (14 + 11) = 25 people, there are 14 males and 11 females.
Hence, in 6,250,000 people, there are 6,250,000*14/25 males = 250,000*14 males = 3,500,000 males

Hence, number of males in the town is 3,500,000.

Finding the percentage of female in the town mean finding how many female are there in each 100 people in the town.

In each 25 people there are 11 females
Hence, in each 100 people, there are 100*11/25 females = 4*11 females = 44 females.

Hence, 44% of the population are female.

Hope that helps.