Solution:

As per the survey of 150 executives of a large insurance company:

Overweight (in Frequency

pounds) (f)
0 to 6 14
6 to 12 42
12 to 18 58
18 to 24 28
24 to 30 8

Table 1: Calculation of mean, variance and standard deviation

Overweight (in Frequency mid value

pounds) (f) (x) f*x x-X̄ f* (x-X̄)2
0 to 6 14 3 42 -10.96 1681.7024
6 to 12 42 9 378 -4.96 1033.2672
12 to 18 58 15 870 1.04 62.7328
18 to 24 28 21 588 7.04 1387.7248
24 to 30 8 27 216 13.04 1360.3328
 Total (∑) 150   2094   5525.76
∑ fx
Mean (X̄) =
N

= 2094/150

= 13.96

Mean is defined as the average value of the given set of data. It is calculated using summation of
all the values given and divided by number of values in given sets. Here, the average overweight
calculated is 13.96 pounds.

∑ f ∗( x− X̄ )2
Standard deviation (σ) =
√ N

5525.76
=
√ 150

= 6.07

The standard deviation in statistics usually measures the spread out of numbers in the data set. If
the standard deviation is low, then it suggests that the set of data are close to the mean and if they
are high then it suggest that spread rate is over large range. Looking at the calculation of standard
deviation, it seems to be relatively low which suggest the data is close to the mean 13.96.

Variance (σ2) = 6.072

= 36.84

Variance in statistics refers to the measure of spread between numbers in any data set. It means
that it measures the distance of each number in any data set from mean and also from each and
every number from the data set. It helps to know how much the random variables differs from
the expected value of data set.

According to the calculation, the variance is 36.84 which is low, this implies that the data in the
set are close to the mean and also to each other.

Histogram of the data

Histogram of Executives' overweight

70
60
50
Frequency

40
30
20
10
0
0-6 6 -12 12 - 18 18 - 24 24 - 30
Overweight (in pounds)

Histogram is the representation of set of data in chart. This was introduced by Karl Pearson. It
provides the summary of distribution of set of data.

Here, the data is distributed symmetrically and it can be seen that center of the histogram lies
between the range of 12 to 18 and overweight pounds has the largest number of executives (data
set). The areas of far left and far right has relatively lower number of executives, 0 to 6 and 24
to 30 respectively. Moreover, the meeting point or the intersecting point inside the highest bar
(12-18) in the histogram shows the mean of the data series which is calculated as 13. 96.

Table 2: Cumulative frequency distribution of data

 Cumulativ
Overweight (in Frequency e
pounds) (f) frequency
0 to 6 14 14
6 to 12 42 56
12 to 18 58 114
18 to 24 28 142
24 to 30 8 150
Executives overweight by more than 18 pounds = 28+8 = 36

36
Therefore, the percentage of executives overweight by more than 18 pounds = *100 = 24%.
150