MERITS AND DEMERITS OF ARITHEMETIC MEAN

ARITHEMETIC MEAN RIGIDLY DEFINED BY

ALGEBRIC FORMULA
It is easy to calculate and simple to understand
IT BASED ON ALL OBSERVATIONS AND IT CAN BE
REGARDED AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GIVEN
DATA
It is capable of being treated mathematically and hence it is
widely used in statistical analysis.
Arithmetic mean can be computed even if the detailed
distribution is not known but some of the observation and
number of the observation are known.
It is least affected by the fluctuation of sampling

DEMERITS OF ARITHMETIC MEAN

It

can neither be determined by inspection or by

graphical location
Arithmetic mean cannot be computed for
qualitative data like data on intelligence honesty
and smoking habit etc
It is too much affected by extreme observations
and hence it is not adequately represent data
consisting of some extreme point
Arithmetic mean cannot be computed when class
intervals have open ends

MERITS OF MEDIAN
It

is easy understand and to easy to calculate

It can easy to find out by inspection
Median can be determined even when class
intervals have open ends
It is not much affected by extreme observations
and also interdependent of range or dispersion of
the data
Median can also be located graphically
It is only suitable average when the data are
qualitative & it is possible to rank various items
according to qualitative charecteristics

Merits of mode
It

is easy to understand and easy to calculate.

In many cases it can be located just by
inspection
Like mean or median it is not affected by
extreme observations
It can be determined even if distribution has
open end classes
It is value around which more concentrations
of observations and hence the best
representative of data

Demerits of mode
It

is not based on all observations

It is not capable of further mathematical
treatment
It is much affected by fluctuations of
sampling
It is not suitable when different items of data
are unequal impotance

Merits and demerits of range

It

is easy to understand and easy to calculate

It gives quick measure of variability
DEMERITS
It is not based on all observations it is very
much affected by extreme observations
It is only gives rough idea of spread of
observations
It cannot to be calculated for a distributions
with open ends

Merits and demerits of standard deviation

MERITS
1)It is a rigidly defined measure of dispersion
2)It is based on all the observations
3)It is capable of being treated mathematically. For example, if
standard deviations of a number of groups are known, their
combined standard deviation can be computed
4)It is not very much affected by the fluctuations of sampling and
therefore is widely used in sampling theory and test of
significance
DEMERITS
1)As compared to the quartile deviation and range etc, it is difficult
to understand and difficult to calculate
2)It gives more importance to extreme observation
3)Since it depends upon the units of measurement of the
observations, it cannot be used to compare the dispersion of the
distribution expressed in different units

.
USES OF STANDARD DEVIATION
Standard deviation can be used to compare the dispersions of
two or more distributions when their units of
measurements and arithmetic means are same
It is used to test the reliability of mean. it may be pointed out
here that the mean of a distribution with least standard
deviation is said to be more reliable.

DEMERITS OF MEDIAN
In

case of individual observations the process

of locations of median requires their
arrangement in order of the magnitude which
may be cumbersome task
It is being a positional average it is not capable
treated algebraically
It not based on the magnitude of all the
observations
in comparison to arithmetic mean it much
affected by the fluctuations of sampling