Cumulative curves for exploration of demographic data: a case study of Northwest England

Abstract

The paper introduces the idea of generalising a cumulative frequency curve to show arbitrary cumulative counts. For example, in demographic studies generalised cumulative curves can represent the distribution of population or area. Generalised cumulative curves can be a valuable instrument for exploratory data analysis. The use of cumulative curves in an investigation of population statistics in Northwest England allowed us to discover interesting facts about relationships between the distribution of national minorities and the degree of deprivation. We detected that, while high concentration of national minorities occurs, in general, in underprivileged districts, there are some differences related to the origin of the minorities. The paper sets the applicability conditions for generalised cumulative curves and compares them with other graphical tools for exploratory data analysis.