If the men to women ratio is 1:1 and we have a total population of 21.7 mil and a literacy rate of 30/20 (% men to women)
how many more men than women are literate?
Is it 2,17 mil or 1,08 mil? Can't decide whether 30% and 20% is from the total of 21,7 mil or half (10,85 mil). Thanks!
I would take this to mean that $30\%$ of the men are literate and $20\%$ of the women are literate so the answer is $1.085$ million. $$\frac{21700000}{2}=10850000$$ $$0.3*10850000=3255000$$ $$0.2*10850000=2170000$$ $$3255000-2170000=1085000$$ $\therefore difference = 1.085\enspace million$
Alternatively, we can get the answer in a much simpler way. Since there are the same number of men and women, the difference is just equal to $10\%$ of the number of men (or number of women). So we can just do: $$0.1*10850000=1085000$$
Just bear in mind, your rounding is incorrect in the question. If you got the answer of $1.085$ then that rounds to $1.09$ to $2dp$ not $1.08$.