Chapter 4, Problem 4.13P

$\boxed{SOC}$ Listed here are the rates of abortion per 100,000 women for 20 states in 1973 and 1975. Compute the median, mean, standard deviation, range and interquartile range for both years. Describe what happened to these distributions over the two-year period. Did the average rate increase or decrease? What happened to the dispersion of this distribution? Did the measures of dispersion increase or decrease? What happened between 1973 and 1975 that might explain these changes in central tendency and dispersion? (HINT: It was a Supreme Court decision.)

	State	1973	1975
1	Mississippi	0.2	0.6
2	Arkansas	2.9	6.3
3	Montana	3.1	9.9
4	Maine	3.5	9.5
5	South California	3.8	10.3
6	Tennessee	4.2	19.2
7	Texas	6.8	19.1
8	Arizona	6.9	15.8
9	Ohio	7.3	17.9
10	Nebraska	7.3	14.3
11	Virginia	7.8	18.0
12	Iowa	8.8	14.7
13	Massachusetts	10.0	25.7
14	Pennsylvania	12.1	18.5
15	Colorado	14.4	24.6
16	Florida	15.8	30.5
71	Michigan	18.7	20.3
18	Hawaii	26.3	31.6
19	California	30.8	33.6
20	New York	53.5	40.7

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1977. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1977. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1977.