How many people is 78 percent?

Answer 1

At first glance the question seems not to have enough information. Thinking about it, there is enough information for some general observations. 78 percent is quite a large proportion of a population. For example, if a US president won with 78 percent of the popular vote, that would be a breathtaking landslide by anyone's reckoning. If 78 percent of a random population were male, or were female, that would be seriously outlandish and an indication that something is seriously wrong. If 78 percent of a sample of 500 people had recorded IQ's of 100 or better given the generally understood mean and s.d. of IQ, then that would be very strong evidence that the population was not chosen randomly.

Apart from this general kind of observation, 78 percent is virtually meaningless unless you give the number out of which you are isolating the 78 percent. For example, 78 percent of a sample of 100 people would be 78 people. 78 percent of the world's population would be considerably larger than that.