MEASURES OF DISPERSION Dispersion refers to variations across a data set.

Accordingly, measures of dispersion is related to determining whether the distribution of data vary or differ from one another. The basis of calculating measures of dispersion is through determining the measures of central tendency and relevant tools considered are Range, Interquartile Range, Variance and Standard Deviation. Central tendency is the middle point of a distribution and measures of central tendency means measuring sets of data in terms of the central location of the data in a data set. Accordingly, measures of central tendency include three important tools mean (average), median and mode. Measures of central tendency are generally calculated among ungrouped and grouped data and the formulae for the same would be accordingly different.

Measures of central tendency and measure of dispersion are complementary, since they help in organizing ungrouped data into smaller groups that are symmetric. The two methods help in deciding and the relation between a given set of data

Measures of Central Tendency Tell you the value that the "typical" case in the distribution has for your variable. Measures of Dispersion Tell you how much variation you have across cases in the distribution of your variable.