Statistics question

Question

published story saying farmers lead other groups in the consumption of alcohol. As evidence, a rehab center located in the rural part of the state treated more farmers than that of any occupational group for alcoholism. Do you agree? Why/why not? Sample size is sufficient. 

Answer 1

The sample is biased towards farmers since the study was taken in a rural part of the state.  Of course it's going to look like more farmers need rehab when there are simply going to be a higher percentage of farmers near that center.  It would be more appropriate to look at the number of farmers in the area, and how many farmers came to the rehab center and figure out what percentage of the farmers sought help compared with other groups.  It would have also been better to look at the data from centers in varying places across the country.  Rural/urban/suburban etc.  Take a proportional amount of data from each type of rehab center.