Economics · Ch 4 — Presentation of Data
Body of the Table
Body of the Table
The body of the table is its main part — it holds the actual data. Every figure in the body has a fixed location determined jointly by the row and the column it lies in.
Because each cell is pinpointed this way, a reader can identify exactly what any number represents: for example, the value standing in a particular row (say, rural females) and a particular column (say, non-workers) tells us precisely that many crore rural females were non-workers. The body is thus the part that actually carries the information; the other parts exist to make it readable. …
This is the working example the whole of §4.4 points to when it says “(See Table 4.5)” — every labelled part of a good statistical table, shown on one real table.
- Table Number: 4.5 — identifies this table among every other table in the chapter (read as “the fifth table of the fourth chapter”).
- Title: Population of India according to workers and non-workers by gender and location, 2001.
- Column Headings (Captions): Workers (split into Main / Marginal / Total), Non-worker, and Total — label what each column holds.
- Row Headings (Stubs): Location (Rural / Urban / All) crossed with Gender (Male / Female / Total) — label what each row holds.
- Unit of Measurement: Crore, stated alongside the title.
| Location | Gender | Main | Marginal | Workers Total | Non-worker | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural | Male | 17 | 3 | 20 | 18 | 38 |
| Female | 6 | 5 | 11 | 25 | 36 | |
| Total | 23 | 8 | 31 | 43 | 74 | |
| Urban | Male | 7 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| Female | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 13 | |
| Total | 8 | 1 | 9 | 19 | 28 | |
| All | Male | 24 | 4 | 28 | 25 | 53 |
| Female | 7 | 5 | 12 | 37 | 49 | |
| Total | 31 | 9 | 40 | 62 | 102 |