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 Measures of Dispersion

Some important definitions of dispersion are given

below:
(i) “Dispersion is the measure of extent to which
individual items vary.”_ L.R. Connor
(ii) “The measure of the scatteredness of the mass of
figures in a series about an average is called the measure
of variation or dispersion.” _Simpson and Kafka
(iii) “The degree to which numerical data tend to spread
about an average value is called variation or dispersion
of the data.” _Spiegel
Characteristics for an Ideal Measure of Dispersion:

(i) It should be rigidly defined.

(ii) It should be easy to calculate and easy to
understand.
(iii) It should be based on all the observations.
(iv) It should be amenable to further mathematical
treatment.
(v) It should be affected as little as possible by
fluctuations of sampling.
 Measures of Dispersion:

(i) Range
(ii) Quartile deviation
(iii) Mean deviation
(iv) Standard deviation
(v) Variance
Range:

The range is the difference between two extreme

observations of the distribution. If 𝐴 and 𝐵 are
the greatest and smallest observations
respectively in a distribution, then its range is
given by:
𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 𝑋𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑋𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 𝐴 − 𝐵
Quartile Deviation:

Quartile deviation or semi-interquartile range 𝑄

is given by:
1
𝑄 = (𝑄3 − 𝑄1 )
2
Where 𝑄3 and 𝑄1 are the first and third quartiles
of the distribution respectively.
Mean Deviation:

If 𝑥𝑖 |𝑓𝑖 , 𝑖 = 1,2, … … … … , 𝑛 is the frequency

distribution, then mean deviation from the average
𝐴(usually mean, median or mode) is given by:
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐴
σ 𝑓𝑖 |𝑥𝑖 − 𝐴|
= , ෍ 𝑓𝑖 = 𝑛
𝑛
𝑖
Where |𝑥𝑖 − 𝐴| represents modulus or the absolute
value of the deviation (𝑥𝑖 − 𝐴), where the negative
sign is ignored.
Standard Deviation:

Standard deviation, usually denoted by the Greek

letter small sigma (𝜎), is the positive square root of
the arithmetic mean of the squares of the deviations
of the given values from their arithmetic mean. For
the frequency distribution 𝑥𝑖 |𝑓𝑖 , 𝑖 =
1,2, … … … … , 𝑛 ,
σ 𝑓𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥)ҧ 2
𝜎=
𝑛
Where 𝑥ҧ is the arithmetic mean of the distribution
and σ 𝑓𝑖 = 𝑛
• The square of standard deviation is called the variance
and is given by:
σ 𝑓 (𝑥 − 𝑥)
ҧ 2
𝑖 𝑖
𝜎2 =
𝑛
• Root mean square deviation, denoted by ‘𝑆’, is given
by:
σ 𝑓𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 − 𝐴)2
𝑆=
𝑛
where 𝐴 is any arbitrary number. 𝑆 2 is called mean
square deviation.
Problem 01: Calculate mean deviation (MD)
from mean for the following data:
Marks 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70

No. of 6 5 8 15 7 6 3
Students
Solution:
Calculation for MD from mean

Marks Mid- No. of 𝑥 − 35 𝑓𝑑 ഥ

|𝑥 − 𝑥| ഥ
𝑓|𝑥 − 𝑥|
value(𝑥) students 𝑑 = 10
(𝑓)
0-10 5 6 -3 -18 28.4 170.4
10-20 15 5 -2 -10 18.4 92.0
20-30 25 8 -1 -8 8.4 67.2
30-40 35 15 0 0 1.6 24.0
40-50 45 7 1 7 11.6 81.2
50-60 55 6 2 12 21.6 129.6
60-70 65 3 3 9 31.6 94.8
σ 𝑓 = 50 σ 𝑓𝑑 = -8 ഥ
σ 𝑓|𝑥 − 𝑥|
=659.2
Here, 𝐴 = 35, 𝑛 = 50
ℎ σ 𝑓𝑑 10(−8)
Mean, 𝑥ҧ = 𝐴 + = 35 + = 33.4
𝑛 50
σ 𝑓|𝑥 − 𝑥ҧ | 659.2
∴ 𝑀𝐷 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 = =
𝑛 50
= 13.184 .
Problem 02: Calculate the standard deviation
and hence variance for the following table giving
the age distribution of 542 members:
Age 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90
(in years)
No. of 3 61 132 153 140 51 2
members
Solution:
Calculation for standard deviation
Age No. of Mid- 𝑓𝑥 𝑓(𝑥 − 𝑥)ҧ 2
(in years) members(𝑓) value(𝑥)

20-30 3 25 75 2649.84
30-40 61 35 2135 23721.58
40-50 132 45 5940 12471.15
50-60 153 55 8415 11.995
60-70 140 65 9100 14794.98
70-80 51 75 3825 20975.20
80-90 2 85 170 1833.76
𝑛 = σ 𝑓 =542 σ 𝑓𝑥 = σ 𝑓(𝑥 − 𝑥)ҧ 2 =
29660 76458.50
 σ 𝑓𝑥 29660
Here, 𝑥ҧ = = = 54.72
𝑛 542

σ 𝑓 𝑥 − 𝑥ҧ 2
∴ 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝜎 =
𝑛

76458.50
= = 141.067 = 11.8772
542
= 11.88 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠
∴ 𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝜎 2 = (11.8772)2 = 141.07
Theorem 01: The variance of first n natural
𝑛2 −1
numbers is .
12
Proof: For the variable 𝑥 assuming 𝑛 natural numbers
1,2,3, … , … , … , 𝑛, the mean 𝑥ҧ is
1+2+3+ ………+𝑛 𝑛(𝑛+1) 𝑛+1
𝑥=
ҧ = =
𝑛 2𝑛 2
And the variance is
σ 2
2 (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥)
ҧ
𝑆𝑥 =
𝑛
σ 𝑥𝑖 2
= − 𝑥ҧ 2
𝑛
12 +22 + … …… +𝑛2 𝑛+1 2
= − ( )
𝑛 2
 𝑛(𝑛+1)(2𝑛+1) 𝑛+1 2
= −( )
6𝑛 2
2
𝑛 −1
=
12
This proves the theorem.
Theorem 02: For two unequal observations,
𝑅
𝑀𝐷 = 𝑆𝐷 = , where MD= Mean deviation about
2
mean, SD= Standard deviation and R= Range.

Proof: Let the two observations be 𝑥1 and 𝑥2 (𝑥1 > 𝑥2 ).

By definition, the mean, range, and the standard
deviation of 𝑥1 and 𝑥2 are respectively
𝑥1 +𝑥2 σ(𝑥𝑖 −𝑥)ҧ 2
𝑥ҧ = , 𝑅 = 𝑥1 - 𝑥2 and 𝑆𝐷 =
2 2
σ 𝑥𝑖 −𝑥ҧ 𝑥1 −𝑥ҧ + 𝑥2 −𝑥ҧ
Now 𝑀𝐷 = = =
2 2
𝑥1 +𝑥2 𝑥1 +𝑥2
𝑥1 − 2 + 𝑥2 − 2
2
 x1 − x2 x2 − x1 x1 − x2 x1 − x2
+ +
= 2 2 = 2 2
2 2
𝑥1 −𝑥2 𝑅
= =
2 2
(𝑥1 −𝑥)ҧ 2 +(𝑥2 −𝑥)ҧ 2 𝑥1 −𝑥2 2 𝑅 2
Again, 𝑆𝐷 2 = = ( ) =( )
2 2 2
𝑅
so that 𝑆𝐷 =
2
𝑅
Combining the results, it follows that 𝑆𝐷= 𝑀𝐷= .
2
This relation also demonstrates that 𝑅 > 𝑆𝐷 and also that
𝑅 > 𝑀𝐷.
Theorem 03: If 𝑥ҧ and 𝑠 denote respectively the mean
and standard deviation of a set of n non-negative values,
𝑠 2
then ( ҧ ) < (𝑛 − 1)
𝑥
This result implies that for set of observations, the
square of the coefficient of variation cannot exceed (𝑛 −
1), where n is the number of observations in the set.

Proof: Let 𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … … … , 𝑥𝑛 be a set of n non-negative

values. The squares of the sum of these values can be
expressed as follows
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