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Median

The document explains the concept of the median as a measure of central tendency, detailing how to calculate it for both ungrouped and grouped data. It provides examples and exercises to illustrate the calculation process, including the use of cumulative frequencies and ogives for grouped data. The median is highlighted as a robust measure that is not affected by outliers.

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Keolebogile Chitutu
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7 views9 pages

Median

The document explains the concept of the median as a measure of central tendency, detailing how to calculate it for both ungrouped and grouped data. It provides examples and exercises to illustrate the calculation process, including the use of cumulative frequencies and ogives for grouped data. The median is highlighted as a robust measure that is not affected by outliers.

Uploaded by

Keolebogile Chitutu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Median as a measure of central Tendency

Ms. G.D Manyeagae

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 1/9


Introduction

The median of a dataset is the middle value when the data are ordered into an
ascending order. The median is not influenced by extreme values/outliers as
long as the sample size remains the same.
Median for Ungrouped data
1 For odd Number of Observations
Order the n observations x1 , ..., xn in an ascending order.
The median is the ( n+1
2
)th ordered observation
2 For even Number of Observations
Order the n observations x1 , ..., xn in an ascending order.
The median (middle) position lies anywhere between the ( n2 )th and ( n+2
2
)th
ranks of the ordered set of observations arranged in an ascending order.
However, for simplicity, we usually take the arithmetic mean of the two
middle observations in the increasing ordered array of numbers as the
position of the median.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 2/9


Example

Consider the following set of data;


2,8,1,5,6,9,4
Solution
i We first order the data in an ascending array, ie

Table: Age distribution of patients

Observation number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Observation 1 2 4 5 6 8 9
ii Since n is odd the median position is calculated as:
Median position=( n+1 th 8 th th
2 ) = ( 2 ) = 4 position
iii Thus the median value is 5.
Exercise
Consider the following set of data.
2,8,11,5,6,8,9,30
Compute the median value.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 3/9


Median for Grouped Data

Functional Estimation of the Median


Recall that a frequency table groups data in an ascending order. For this reason,
we can use the less than cumulative frequencies to find the median for grouped
data. The steps are as follows.
i Construct a column of less than frequencies
ii Identify the median class as the class whose cumulative frequency is equal
to or exceeds the ( n2 )th for the first time
iii find the class boundaries of the median class.
iv Estimate the median using the formula
n
−F
x̃ = l + [ 2 fm b ]c
where;
l is the lower class boundary of the median class
n is the total number of observations
Fb is the cumulative frequency of the class preceeding the median class,
fm is the frequency of the median class and
c is the class width.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 4/9


Example
Consider the age distribution of 25 consecutive patients entering the general
medical/surgical intensive care unit at a large urban hospital contained in the
Table below.

Table: Age distribution of patients

Age(Years) Number of patients (f)


10-19 3
20-29 1
30-39 3
40-49 0
50-59 6
60-69 1
70-79 9
80-89 2
25

Calculate the median age of the 25 patients entering the general


medical/surgical intensive care unit at the large urban hospital
Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 5/9
Solution

We include the cumulative frequency column as shown in the table.

Table: Number of Patients

Age (Years)x Number of Patients (f ) Less than cumulative Frequency


10-19 3 3
20-29 1 4
30-39 3 7
40-49 0 7
50-59 6 13
60-69 1 14
70-79 9 23
80-89 2 25
25

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 6/9


Solution...

We compute the position of the median as n2 = 25 2 = 12.5. Thus the


median class is 50-59, and the class boundaries are 49.5-59.5. Then
l = 49.5
fm = 6
Fb =7, and
c = 10
n
−F
Therefore;x̃ = l + [ 2 fm b ]c
⇒ 49.5 + [ 12.5−7
6 ]10
⇒ 49.5 + (0.91667 × 10)
⇒ x̃ = 58.66years
Notice that the median age 58.66 years of falls within the median class
boundaries 49.5 – 59.5 years.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 7/9


Exercise

The following table gives the frequency distribution of the daily wages of 60
factory workers.

Table: Daily wages of workers

Wages No of workers
50-69 10
70-89 15
90-109 20
110-119 10
120-129 5
60

Find the median wage.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 8/9


Median approximation using ogives

We can estimate the median using ogives as outlined below:


i Draw a less than ogive and superimpose on it a more than ogive for the
data at hand (i.e., both types of ogive on the same graph paper).
ii Mark the point where the two types of ogive intersect.
iii Draw a perpendicular line from the point of intersection of the two ogives
to the x-axis. The point at which this line touches the x-axis gives the
approximate value of the median .
Exercise
Use the appropriate graphical method to find the median age of a patient
entering the general medical/surgical intensive care unit at the large urban
hospital.

Ms. G.D Manyeagae The Median as a measure of central Tendency 9/9

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