The data in Table 8 on the previous page represent the marital status and gender of the residents of the United States aged 15 years old or older in 2013.

(a) Compute the probability that a randomly selected individual has never married given the individual is male.

(b) Compute the probability that a randomly selected individual is male given the individual has never married.

Approach

(a) Since the randomly selected person is male, concentrate on the male column. There are 122.5 million males and 41.6 million males who never married, so N(male) = 122.5 million and N(male and never married) = 41.6 million.

Compute the probability using the Conditional Probability Rule.

(b) Since the randomly selected person has never married, concentrate on the never married row. There are 78.5 million people who have never married and 41.6 million males who have never married, so N(never married) = 78.5 million and N(male and never married) = 41.6 million. Compute the probability using the Conditional Probability Rule.

Table 8 Males Females Totals (in millions) (in millions) (in millions) Never married Married Widowed 41.6 36.9 78.5 64.4 63.1 127.5 3.1 11.2 14.3 Divorced 11.0 14.4 25.4 Separated 2.4 3.2 5.6 Totals (in millions) 122.5 128.8 251.3