Thestandarddeviation(SD)describeshowspreadoutasetofobservationsarefrom the mean (i.e.

the
variability or deviation of each observation from the mean value). It is equal to the square root of
the variance (the average of the squares of the differences from the mean) in four easy steps.

(1) Calculate the mean for all the values (x̄ ). (2) For each individual observation (x), subtract the
mean (x̄ ) and square the results (to make all positive). This is known as the squared deviation. (3)
Add all the observations together (Σ) and divide by the total number of observations (n). (4) Take
the square root of the variance.

With the mean taken as the centre point, a range of one SD above (+) and below (−) will include
68.3% of the values, 2 SD will include 95.4% of the values, and 3 SD will include 99.7% of the
values.