Title: Cumulative percentage
Course: Health Management, Ethics and Research - Ethiopia (Full)

Cumulative percentage

The cumulative percentage for a given category means the percentage of people who fall into that category, or a lower category. To work out the cumulative percentage for each category, you just have to add the percentage for that category to all of the percentages for the categories which are lower. Table 12.7 shows an example of cumulative percentages using the same data as in Table 12.6. It is a way of presenting the same data in a more descriptive way.

Table 12.7 Percentage and cumulative percentage of females by age group.

Age group | Number of women | Percentage of the total | Cumulative percentage
under 30 | 200 | 17 | 17
30–40 | 400 | 33 | 50
41–50 | 350 | 29 | 79
over 50 | 250 | 21 | 100
all ages | 1200 | 100 | 100