How should you interpret data from a chart showing percentages?

• A. Only identify the largest percentage.
• B. Ensure the percentages sum to 100% and compare relative shares across categories.
• C. Ignore totals.
• D. Compute averages across categories.

Answer: (B)

Percent data show each category’s portion of a whole. The key is to verify the percentages add up to 100% so you’re looking at a complete distribution, then compare the shares across categories to see which areas dominate and how the rest are spread. Focusing only on the largest percentage misses the overall pattern, and ignoring totals can remove important context if you ever need to relate the shares back to actual counts. Averaging percentages across categories isn’t meaningful here because these values are already parts of the same whole, and averaging can obscure how the distribution actually sits.