Numerator denominator VS Percentage indicators

This article explains the difference between selecting Numerator/Denominator Indicator VS selecting a Percentage indicator.

We recommend using a percentage type indicators when you values share a same base. If not, use the Numerator/Denominator type.

Example

You have a group of 447 participants. Of these, 220 are male and 227 are female. 

Lets say we need to calculate the percentage of participants who meet a condition, disaggregated by gender, let's say the condition is "Attended training".

Option 1: Using Percentage Indicator 

In this case, LogAlto takes the overall values of those who meet the condition and makes an average.

Using the example above, if 97 male out of 220 and 145 women out of 227 participated in the training, LogAlto calculates the following: 

53.5% to be exact

The disaggregated percentages are always averaged together to provide the total.

We recommend using disaggregated percentage type indicators only if the values share a same base. In our example this would of been the case if we were counting the rate of male (97/242) and female (145/242) attendees and disregarding the remainder of the population. An other classic example would be counting student grades since they are all based on 100%.

Option 2: Using Numerator/Denominator indicators

LogAlto gives you the options for how you want the disaggregated rates to be calculated. When counting people, we recommend using Sum of all numerators / Sum of all denominators

Using the example presented above, LogAlto would calculate this:

54.139% to be exact

This calculation takes into account the “weight” of each option, and the final total is calculated on this basis. This is most likely your preferred method for this example.


For more information on this type of indicator see our article here.