Financial Correlations
What Does Money Mean for AIDS?
The next correlation I explored was the different financial situations per race throughout the county. As expected, there was a strong negative correlation for the AIDS rate against the per capita income for 1999. With a coefficient of -0.329 there is a clear negative correlation which demonstrates that a higher income should lead to a lower AIDS rate. The negative correlation is to be expected as increased finances can lead to not only better healthcare but also a better education where prevention methods might be taught. I also gathered data regarding the percent of the population of a race below the poverty line and expected to find positive correlations for all the races studied, however with the new information regarding the Hispanic or Latinos I then also expected a significant correlation.
While the plots on the graphs for both Blacks and Hispanics or Latinos seem to have several outliers, with these points removed from the equations there are still both positive correlations indicating that a greater percentage of each population below the poverty line will have a higher likelihood of a high AIDS rate. Additionally, the percent White alone population below the poverty line was insignificantly positively correlated, but what was interesting was the % “other races” below the poverty line (which included Asians, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaska Natives) had a slightly negative correlation. This value might be attributed to the fact that all zip codes had not even 1% below the poverty line and when correlated to the AIDS rate this produces a negative coefficient.
