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Viii. Measures of Dispersion

The measures of central tendency do not fully describe a data set, so measures of dispersion are needed. Measures of dispersion describe how spread out the values are from the average. The three main measures are range, variance, and standard deviation. [The range is the difference between the highest and lowest values. Variance is the average of the squared deviations from the mean. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance.] A sample is used to calculate sample variance and standard deviation as estimates of the population values.

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35 views2 pages

Viii. Measures of Dispersion

The measures of central tendency do not fully describe a data set, so measures of dispersion are needed. Measures of dispersion describe how spread out the values are from the average. The three main measures are range, variance, and standard deviation. [The range is the difference between the highest and lowest values. Variance is the average of the squared deviations from the mean. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance.] A sample is used to calculate sample variance and standard deviation as estimates of the population values.

Uploaded by

Larry Quiambao
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© © All Rights Reserved
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MEASURES OF DISPERSION

The measures of central tendency give information about the center of data set which
does not adequately describes the characteristics of the distribution. To do this, we need to
compute the degree of dispersion of the values from the average. These measures are called
the measures of dispersion or variability. It describes how spread the individual values are from
the average. Among these measures are the range, variance, and standard deviation.
The range (R) is the simplest and easiest to compute among the measure of dispersion,
but it also the unstable and the most unreliable measure because it can easily be affected by
the extreme values. It is the difference between the highest and the lowest values in the
distribution.
R = HV – LV
The variance is the average of the squared deviation of the values about the arithmetic
mean. The differences of the values from the mean will produce negative differences if the
values are below the mean. To avoid this, variance is developed as an alternative mechanism
for overcoming the zero sum property of deviations from the mean.

The population variance is denoted by (𝝈𝝈𝟐𝟐 ) and can be obtained by using the formula

∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝜇𝜇)2
𝜎𝜎 2 =
𝑁𝑁
x- Individual value
𝝁𝝁 – Population mean
N- Population size

The standard deviation (𝝈𝝈) is the square root of the variance. It is popular, and it is the
most reliable measure of variability expressed in the same units as the raw data, unlike the
variance, which is expressed in squared units. The population standard deviation is denoted by
𝜎𝜎 and can be computed as follows:

∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝜇𝜇)2
𝜎𝜎 = √𝜎𝜎 2 = �
𝑁𝑁

Sample variance is denoted by s2 and the sample standard deviation by s. These are
used as estimates of population variance and population standard deviation. Using n-1 in the
denominator of a sample variance or sample standard deviation, rather than n, results in better
estimate of the population values. The sample variance can be obtained using the formula
∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝑥𝑥̅ )2
𝑠𝑠 2 =
𝑛𝑛−1
x- Individual value
𝑥𝑥̅ – Sample mean
n- Sample size
while the sample standard deviation is

∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝑥𝑥̅ )2
s = √ 𝑠𝑠 2 = �
𝑛𝑛−1

Example:
A sample of six street vendors along San Pedro St. were surveyed and obtained their
average daily income as follows:
₱560 ₱320 ₱440 ₱650 ₱200 ₱490
Solution:
∑ 𝑥𝑥 200+320+440+490+560+650 2660
𝑥𝑥̅ = = = = 443.33
𝑛𝑛 6 6

Arrange the data in column

Income (x) (x- 𝑥𝑥̅ ) (x − 𝑥𝑥̅ )2


200 200 - 443.33 = -243.33 (-243.33)2 = 59,209.49
320 320- 443.33 = -123.33 (-123.33)2 = 15,210.29
440 440 – 443.33 = -3.33 (-3.33)2 = 11.09
490 490 – 443.33 = 46.67 (46.67)2 = 2,178.09
560 560 – 443.33 = 116.67 (116.67)2 = 13,611.89
650 650 – 443.33 = 206.67 (206.67)2 = 42,712.49
∑ 𝑥𝑥 = 2660 ∑(𝑥𝑥 − 𝑥𝑥̅ )2 = 132, 933.34

Compute for the variance:

∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝑥𝑥̅ )2 132,933.34


𝑠𝑠 2 = 𝑛𝑛−1
= 𝑠𝑠 2 = = 26,586.67
6−1

Compute for the standard deviation

∑(𝑥𝑥− 𝑥𝑥̅ )2
s=� 𝑛𝑛−1
= �26,586.67 = 163.05

Therefore, the sample variance is ₱26,586.67, and the sample standard deviation is ₱163.05

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