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The Chi-Square Distribution

The Chi-square distribution describes the distribution of values for a population being tested statistically. It is used for tests like the chi-square goodness of fit test and test of independence, where the test statistic follows a chi-squared distribution. The chi-square distribution depends on degrees of freedom and becomes more normal-like as degrees of freedom increase. Chi-square tables can be used to find critical values for these tests based on the alpha level and degrees of freedom.

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58 views

The Chi-Square Distribution

The Chi-square distribution describes the distribution of values for a population being tested statistically. It is used for tests like the chi-square goodness of fit test and test of independence, where the test statistic follows a chi-squared distribution. The chi-square distribution depends on degrees of freedom and becomes more normal-like as degrees of freedom increase. Chi-square tables can be used to find critical values for these tests based on the alpha level and degrees of freedom.

Uploaded by

Mohammed Arshad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Chi-Square Distribution

jmp.com/en_ch/statistics-knowledge-portal/chi-square-test/chi-square-distribution.html

What is a Chi-square distribution?


The Chi-square distribution is a theoretical distribution of values for a population.

How is the Chi-square distribution used?


It is used for statistical tests where the test statistic follows a Chi-squared distribution.
Two common tests that rely on the Chi-square distribution are the Chi-square goodness of
fit test and the Chi-square test of independence.

Introducing the Chi-square distribution


The Chi-square distribution is a family of distributions. Each distribution is defined by the
degrees of freedom. (Degrees of freedom are discussed in greater detail on the pages for
the goodness of fit test and the test of independence.) The figure below shows three
different Chi-square distributions with different degrees of freedom.

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Figure 1: Chi-Square distribution with different degrees of freedom
You can see that the blue curve with 8 degrees of freedom is somewhat similar to a normal
curve (the familiar bell curve). But, it has a longer tail to the right than a normal
distribution and is not symmetric. Compare the blue curve to the orange curve with 4
degrees of freedom. The orange curve is very different from a normal curve. The purple
curve has 3 degrees of freedom and looks even less like a normal curve than the other two
curves.

The higher the degrees of freedom for a Chi-square distribution, the more it looks like a
normal distribution.

Using published Chi-square distribution tables


Most people use software to do Chi-square tests. But many statistics books show Chi-
square tables, so understanding how to use a table might be helpful. The steps below
describe how to use a typical Chi-square table.

1. Identify your alpha level. Each column in the table lists values for different alpha
levels. If you set α = 0.05 for your test, then find the column for α = 0.05.
2. Identify the degrees of freedom for the test you are doing and for your data. The
rows in a Chi-square table correspond to different degrees of freedom. Most tables
go up to 30 degrees of freedom.
3. Find the cell in the table corresponding to your alpha level and degrees of freedom.
This is the Chi-square distribution value. Compare your test statistic to the
distribution value and make the appropriate conclusion.

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