Mean Deviation

A Presentation
By
Prof. Manidatta Ray.
Mean (Absolute) Deviation
Definition :Mean Deviation (MD) or Mean
Absolute Deviation (MAD) of a set of
observations is nothing but the average of
absolute deviations of each observations
from the A.M of the set of observations .

In case of symmetric distribution , the

value of A.M. and Median coincides. In
that case we can take Median in place of
A.M. for calculating MD/MAD .
 Steps involved in Computation of MD :
- Compute the Mean of the series .
- Find the deviations of the items from
mean ignoring +,- signs and these
deviations may be denoted as I Di I
(absolute values of deviations).
- Obtain the total of these deviations .
- Divide the total of the deviations obtained
by total nos. of observations .
 Coefficient of Mean Deviation
The relative measure of Mean Deviation is called
Coefficient of Mean Deviation . It is obtained
by dividing Mean Deviation by a measure of
central tendency ( either mean or median) used
for calculation of MD.

Coefficient of MD = MD/(Mean or Median)

If the value of Coefficient of MD is required in

percentage then 100 is multiplied to the above
formula .
 Merits and Demerits of MD
Merits :
- Calculation of MD is based on all the observations in the
distribution and it shows the dispersion of values around
MCT.
- It is easy to compute and easy to understand.
- Equal weightage is given to all observations in the
distribution .

Demerits :
- The algebraic signs of the deviations are ignored .
- This measure of dispersion is not suitable if there is high
degree of variability in data set.
- It doesn’t support to further mathematical treatment .