Top credit card issuers, by region. The Nilson Report (December 2015) published a list of the top 150 credit card issuers worldwide. The issuers (e.g., American Express, MasterCard, Visa) were ranked based on outstanding debt during the year. The table gives a breakdown of the regions in the world served by the top 150 credit card issuers.

Worldwide Region	Number of credit card issuers
Asia-Pacific	48
Canada	10
Europe	34
Latin America	29
Middle East/Africa	3
United States	26
Total	150

a. One of the top 150 credit card issuers is selected at random, and the region it serves is determined. What type of data (quantitative or qualitative) is measured?

b. For each region in the table, calculate the percentage of the 150 top credit card issuers that fall into that region.

c. Use the percentages, part b, to construct a relative frequency bar graph for the data summarized in the table.

d. Based on the bar graph, make a statement about the regions that most of the top 150 credit card users serve.

The Nilson Report dealt with the outstanding debts of the credit card issuers. Outstanding debts always remain numerical, so it has to be quantitative instead of qualitative.

The calculations of the percentage of the credit card issuers in the specified regions are shown below:

$$\begin{gathered} \mathit{P}\mathit{e}\mathit{r}\mathit{c}\mathit{e}\mathit{n}\mathit{t}\mathit{a}\mathit{g}\mathit{e}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{\text{Number}}\mathbf{ }\mathbf{\text{of issuers in a region}}}{\mathbf{T}\mathbf{o}\mathbf{t}\mathbf{a}\mathbf{l}\mathbf{}\mathbf{n}\mathbf{u}\mathbf{m}\mathbf{b}\mathbf{e}\mathbf{r}\mathbf{}\mathbf{o}\mathbf{f}\mathbf{}\mathbf{i}\mathbf{s}\mathbf{s}\mathbf{u}\mathbf{e}\mathbf{r}\mathbf{s}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{A}\mathit{s}\mathit{i}\mathit{a}\mathbf{}\mathbf{-}\mathbf{}\mathit{P}\mathit{a}\mathit{c}\mathit{i}\mathit{f}\mathit{i}\mathit{c}\mathbf{}\mathit{r}\mathit{e}\mathit{g}\mathit{i}\mathit{o}\mathit{n}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{48}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{32}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{67}\mathbf{\%} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{C}\mathit{a}\mathit{n}\mathit{a}\mathit{d}\mathit{a}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{10}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{6}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{67}\mathbf{\%}\mathbf{} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{E}\mathit{u}\mathit{r}\mathit{o}\mathit{p}\mathit{e}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\frac{\mathbf{34}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{22}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{67}\mathbf{\%} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{L}\mathit{a}\mathit{t}\mathit{i}\mathit{n}\mathbf{}\mathit{A}\mathit{m}\mathit{e}\mathit{r}\mathit{i}\mathit{c}\mathit{a}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{29}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{19}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{33}\mathbf{\%} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{M}\mathit{i}\mathit{d}\mathit{d}\mathit{l}\mathit{e}\mathbf{}\mathit{E}\mathit{a}\mathit{s}\mathit{t}\mathbf{/}\mathit{A}\mathit{s}\mathit{i}\mathit{a}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{3}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{2}\mathbf{\%} \\ \mathit{F}\mathit{o}\mathit{r}\mathbf{}\mathit{U}\mathit{n}\mathit{i}\mathit{t}\mathit{e}\mathit{d}\mathbf{}\mathit{S}\mathit{t}\mathit{a}\mathit{t}\mathit{e}\mathit{s}\mathbf{}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{26}}{\mathbf{150}}\mathbf{\times }\mathbf{100}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{17}\mathbf{.}\mathbf{33}\mathbf{\%} \end{gathered}$$

The bar graph has been formed with the help of the percentages calculated in Step 2. The vertical axis represents the relative frequencies (in percentages), and in the horizontal axis, the regions are plotted.

From the bar graph, it can be deduced that the Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of credit card issuers because the bar of that region is the tallest. On the other hand, the bar of the Middle East/Africa is the shortest, which indicates that the sample contains the least number of credit card issuers from this region.