p = (74.5+124.2)/242
p is not 1.0, because of things called divorce and death.
p is not 1.0, because of things called divorce and death.
According to the provided data, there are 124.2 million currently married individuals and 74.5 million individuals who have never been married. To calculate the probability, we add these two numbers together:
Probability = (124.2 million + 74.5 million) / 242 million
Simplifying this expression gives us:
Probability = 198.7 million / 242 million
To further simplify, we can divide both the numerator and denominator by 2:
Probability = 99.35 million / 121 million
Now, why is this probability not equal to 1.0?
The probability represents the likelihood of selecting a certain outcome (in this case, someone who is currently married or has never been married) out of all possible outcomes (the entire population). In our case, the total population considered is 242 million.
However, the probability will never reach 1.0 for two reasons. First, there are other marital status categories to consider, such as divorced, widowed, or separated, which are not accounted for in the given data. Second, the population of interest is 15 years and older, so there may be some individuals in this population who are not married nor have never been married, but are in other categories like divorced or widowed.
Therefore, the probability that a randomly selected person is currently married or has never been married is not equal to 1.0 because the provided data does not account for all possible marital status categories, and there may be individuals within the population who do not fall into these specific categories.