Descriptive measures to

summarise data
Girish Aggarwal
1510130

Summary Measures
Describing Data Numerically

Central Tendency

Variation

Arithmetic Mean

Range

Median

Interquartile Range

Mode

Variance
Standard Deviation

Shape
Skewness

Arithmetic Mean
The arithmetic mean (mean) is the most common measure of
central tendency
Mean = sum of values divided by the number of values
n

X
Sample size

X
i1

X1 X 2 Xn

n
Observed values

Median: Position and Value

In an ordered array, the median is the middle
number (50% above, 50% below)
The location (position) of the median:
n 1
Median position
position in the ordered data
2

Mode

A measure of central tendency

Value that occurs most often
There may be no mode
There may be several modes

Measures of Variation
Variation
Range

Interquartile
Range

Variance

Standard
Deviation

Measures of variation
give information on the
spread or variability of
the data values.
Same center,
different variation

Range and Interquartile Rage

Range
Simplest measure of variation
Difference between the largest and the smallest observations:
Range = Xlargest Xsmallest

Interquartile Range
- Difference between the values of two quartiles
- Interquartile range = 3rd quartile 1st quartile
= Q3 Q1

Variance
Average (approximately) of squared
deviations of values from the mean
n

Sample variance:

Where

S
2

(X X)
i1

X = arithmetic mean
n = sample size
Xi = ith value of the variable X

n -1

Standard Deviation

Most commonly used measure of variation

Shows variation about the mean
Has the same units as the original data
It is a measure of the average spread around the mean

Sample standard deviation:

n

(X X)
i1

n -1

Shape of a Distribution
Describes how data are distributed
Measures of shape
Symmetric or skewed
Left-Skewed

Symmetric

Right-Skewed

Mean < Median

Mean = Median

Median < Mean

Thank You !