Using Vividata

We'll use the following example to show how to create and interpret a Vividata table:

Are Canadians who chew gum more likely to be Millennials, GenXers, or Baby Boomers?

Sort by allows you to sort your results by either % or Count; once you've selected the type of sort, click on the up and down arrows next to the split you want to sort. Clicking once sorts in descending order (largest to smallest); clicking again will reverse the order.

Export to Excel will export your table directly into Excel - apply formatting, create a chart or pivot table, or use it in combination with other data.

Time Period is helpful for citing your Vividata table. Benchmark indicates which data is being used to calculate the benchmarks for the rest of the data.

Question
Identifies each of the questions you have added to your table. In our example, we only have one question: Age - Generation.

Question Responses
For each question, lists the responses to the question. In our example, responses were Millennials, GenXers, and Baby Boomers.

Weighted/Unweighted Base
These numbers represent the number of respondents. The Unweighted base represents the actual number of respondents. The Weighted base is measured in '000s (i.e., multiply the number by 1,000), and represents the number of respondents as a measure of the entire population of Canada aged 14 and older. (Important: All counts reported in a table are weighted numbers, with the exception of Unweighted base; this means that you need to multiply them by 1,000.

Splits
These are the segments of our target population. In our example, we have a population representing All Respondents aged 14 and older, as well as a population representing those who have chewed gum in the past 6 months. Each split is represented as either Count (the number of respondents) or % (the number of respondents as a percentage of total respondents in that segment).

The Data
The data in your table is packed with useful information. The numbers in the statements below are highlighted in the table above.

1. Of the 38,310 respondents (representing 28,458,000 Canadians aged 14 and older), 17,734 said they had chewed gum within the past 6 months. This represents 13,084,000 consumers overall. [Remember that weighted figures are represented in the '000s.]
2. Of the people who reported that they had personally chewed gum with in the past 6 months, 32.5% of them are GenXers. However, only 30.2% of the Canadian population aged 14 and older are GenXers, so people who chew gum are more likely to be GenXers that you might expect given that generation's share of the Canadian population.
3. In fact, the 107.9 index value tells us that GenXers are roughly 7.9% more likely to chew gum than is the general population aged 14 and older. [Index value = 100*(32.5-30.3)/30.3), with minor variation due to rounding of intermediate values.]
4. Of all the Canadian GenXers represented by this survey (8,581,900), 49.6% (or roughly half) of them state that they have chewed gum in the past 6 months.

Occasionally you might find numbers highlighted in red or blue; this colour coding indicates that the numbers are likely too small to make valid inferences from the data.

For each of the statements below, fill in the blanks using the data from this table:

1. Of the Canadians 14 and older who reported that they had personally chewed gum with in the past 6 months, ____% of them are in the Baby Boomer generation.
2. The Baby Boomer generation makes up about ____% of the population overall.
3. Comparing the two numbers above, it's clear that Baby Boomers are under/over represented among Canadians who chew gum. You can also see this by the index number of _____.
4. _____% of Baby Boomers report that they chew gum, but that makes up only ____% of all people who state that they have chewed gum within the past 6 months.
5. The index number of 92.2 for Baby Boomers who chew gum means that people who chew gum are roughly _____% less likely to be in the Baby Boomer generation.

You'll find the answers below.

Answers

1. 32.8%
2. 35.6%
3. under, 92.2
4. 42.4%, 32.8%
5. 7.8%