In a recent survey, 1200 people were interviewed. 2 1/2 % of those surveyed earned more than $60,000 a year. How many people who were surveyed earned more than

Question

There is just too much going on here and I'm super confused! 

Answer 1

The end of the question is missing.  I'm assuming that it ask how many people earned more than $60,000.

 

We know how many people were surveyed: 1200.  2 1/2% of those people earn more than $60,000.  The question is, "How many people is that?"  Stated differently, the question is "What is 2 1/2% of 1200?"

 

When converting words to equations, the word "of" means "times".  This means that we need to multiply 1200 by two and a half percent.

 

Convert the percent to a decimal.

2 1/2% = 0.025

 

Multiply

(1200)(0.025) = 30

 

See the Purple Math website for a good article on word problems.  Scroll down on their home page to the section called "Solving Word Problems" and click on "Translation".  There's a nice table with some handy keywords to look for and what they mean in math terms.