Graph 1- Population / Number of services
Graph 1 is a scatter graph which shows the trend in population and the number of services. The graph told me that larger populations had a larger number of services in most cases. This is mainly due to my hypothesis, which states that larger populations have a greater number of services. But in a couple of case my results were different. When I noticed the discrepancies I decided to include an r2 value which told me that my hypothesis was 95.7% accurate. For instance there is a town with population 774 and it has 19 services and there is another town with 554 and it has 30 services. This is where we have to try and offer explanations for the differences in the trends. Some of the explanations I have been considering is cross border proximity and the how well the area is covered by public transport.
If the town is going to be near the border then we have to take into account the amount of people coming across the border to avail of a greater service offered on the other side. For instance the main advantage I can think off for people coming from Southern Ireland into the North is the value of their currency. Even though euro is a very weak currency compared to the sterling pound it is still a lot cheaper for people from the South to shop in the North. Also some of the towns are served better by the public transport therefore the towns served better by public transport will have more people coming into the town. Towns such as Roslea are very badly served with public transport. The local bus to Enniskillen only comes once a week and only arrives and comes back at one time during that day. This therefore would result in less people entering the town via bus.
Graph 2- Graph to show the population of towns
(Liked to graph 5)
Graph 2 is a bar chart which shows the population of the all the towns that I have included in my studies. They are grouped in order of size from largest to smallest. Starting with Enniskillen and ending with Smithborough. This graph clearly shows the gradient in the population and makes it very easy to compare the population of towns with other graphs, to try and prove my hypothesis.
Graph 3- Graph to show the variety of services in each town
(Linked to graph 4)
Graph 3 is a bar chart which shows the variety of services offered by each town that I have been studying. This graph also shows the information in order of size starting with the largest number of services to the smallest number of services. This graph also clearly shows the gradient in the variety of service for each town. This graph along with graph 4 will also play a major part in my hypothesis which also states that larger towns should have a greater variety of services. From this graph I can see that in most cases my hypothesis is proven correct but there are also a small number of discrepancies in which it is incorrect. For instance take into account Maguiresbridge which has a bigger population than Roslea but Roslea has a greater number of services. Why is this? Well I don not know for certain but I assume that it is down to the situation of the town. For instance most of the residents of Maguiresbridge would probably shop in Enniskillen as it is so close, where as Roslea is further away from a larger town.
Graph 4- Graph to show the relationship between population and the variety of services
(Linked to graph 3)
Graph 4 is a scatter graph which shows the relationship between population and the variety of services. This graph will also play a major part in proving my hypothesis which states that if a town has a larger population than it will also have a greater variety of services. In this graph I noticed that there was also a couple of discrepancies these would be the same as in graph 3 as it reflects the town. When I noticed the discrepancies I decided to take my investigation further so I included an r2 value which was able to tell me exactly how accurate my results were: 90.23%. Again the reasons for this would be down to the situation of the town that’s population is included in the graph. Some of the towns may be very close to larger towns so they may not use there own local town at all.
Graph 5- Graph to show the number of services in each town.
(Linked to graph 2)
Graph 5 is a bar graph which shows the number of service in each town that I have studied. This graph clearly displays the gradient in the town and the number of services offered, largest number of services to smallest number of services. In order for me to make use of this graph I must compare it with the population graph (2) for me to try and prove my hypothesis which states that larger towns will have a greater number of services.
I also took into account the questionnaires that members of the public filled out for each town and as I suspected it mainly followed my hypothesis in most of the cases. My hypothesis stated that larger towns would offer a greater number and larger variety of services that people would come further distances to avail of. But there were a small number of discrepancies with a some of the results. For instance a number of the questionnaires did not really prove my hypothesis true as it did not follow the pattern of the majority of my results. Also some of the towns with a greater population than others did not seem to have as great a sphere of influence as some towns with a smaller population. The reason that I think might have caused this is the locality of the town. For instance some of the towns were on the border in which many people may come due to the strength of their currency and the value of goods across the border. Other reasons may include the quality of transport to the town (e.g. Good roads, adequate bus service)
Conclusions
From my interpretation of my graphs I can now concluded that my hypothesis was proven true to a certain extent. From graph 1 I was able to conclude that with regards to the population against number of services that in most cases if the population was greater, so to was the number of services which I had predicted in my hypothesis. Once I included the r2 value I was able to prove that my hypothesis was 95.7% accurate with regard to population and the number of services. The only reason I can offer for the small discrepancies in my hypothesis is down to the locality of the town. For instance a small town may be very near to a larger town and the small town would have a great population as housing would be cheaper but less services because it is mainly served by the larger town.
Therefore a town may have a greater population but less number or services then another smaller town. (e.g. Maguiresbridge and Roslea) the From graph 2 I was able to get an indication into the size of the towns which would prove vital in trying to draw up conclusions in order to try and prove my hypothesis true. From graph 3 and graph 4 I was able to conclude that in most cases my hypothesis which stated that towns with a greater population would have a greater variety of services was true. When I included the r2 value I was able to conclude that my hypothesis was 90.2% true. The reason for it not being 100% true is probably due to the same reason I stated for the population and the number of services, which was the locality of the town.
Having considered all my points and looked into all my results in great detail I am able to conclude that to a certain extent my hypothesis has been proven true. I now have proof that the larger the population the larger the number and variety or service in most cases. Some of the reason that I would offer to try and cover my discrepancies would be: the locality of the town (e.g. near larger town or border) and transport to and from town (e.g. roads, bus service).
Evaluation
My results are conclusive enough to test my hypothesis to a certain extent, but if I had the chance to repeat this project I would do a couple of things to increase the accuracy of my results. Firstly the main problem that I noticed between the whole groups was that we did not complete enough surveys therefore our statement in which we said larger towns would have a greater sphere of influence was very weak. If I was to repeat this project again I would make sure that there was a much greater number or surveys completed.
My results are accurate enough to make valid conclusions and prove certain points but if I wanted to my points and views to a greater extent I would have to take more time in the recording of the results, and try and make sure that I included every possible service. For instance in the recording of my results I never took into account building and plastering contractors which in small town there could be many. If I was to repeat the project again I would try and spread the recording day over two days therefore there would not be as much pressure on me and I would have more time to record my results more accurately.
