Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Data Analytics

Topic 3
“Numerical Descriptive Measures”

Objectives
• To describe the properties of central tendency, variation, and
shape in numerical data
• To compute descriptive summary measures for a population
• To construct and interpret a boxplot

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Road Map to Numerical Descriptive Measures

Numerical Descriptive Measures

Central Tendency Variation Shape

Mean Range Skewness

Median Variance

Standard
Mode
deviation

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Central tendency
The central tendency is the extent to which the data values group
around a typical or central value.

The Mean (Average value)

The arithmetic mean is the most common measure of central
tendency. The mean can be calculated by adding together all the
values and then dividing that sum by the number of values.

❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number

of goals scored in each game
2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2
then
∑𝑛𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 = 2 + 1 + 4 + 3 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 2 = 15
and the sample mean is
∑𝑛
𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 15
𝑥̅ = = = 1.5.
𝑛 10

Formulas > Insert Function (𝑓𝑥 ) > Statistical > AVERAGE

Note: Because all the values play an equal role, a mean is greatly
affected by any value that is greatly different from the others.

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number

of goals scored in each game
2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 25, 1, 2
then
∑𝑛𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 = 2 + 1 + 4 + 3 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 25 + 1 + 2 = 40
and the sample mean is
∑𝑛
𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 40
𝑥̅ = = = 4.
𝑛 10

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

The Median (Middle value)

The median is the middle value in an ordered array of data that has
been ranked from smallest to largest.
❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number
of goals scored in each game
2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2
then Step 1 is arranging the values in ascending order are
0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4.
Step 2:
10 + 1
Median = = 5.5 ranked value
2

Note: The median is insensitive to extreme values.

Formulas > Insert Function (𝑓𝑥 ) > Statistical > MEDIAN

The Mode (Most frequent value)

The mode is the value in a set of data that appears most frequently.
Note: Often, there is no mode, or there are several modes in a set
of data.

❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number

of goals scored in each game

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2
Mode =

Variation
Variation measures the spread, or dispersion, of values in a data
set.
The Range
The range is the simplest numerical descriptive measure of
variation in a set of data.
Range = max − min
❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number
of goals scored in each game
2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2
𝑅 =4−0=4

Variance
The variance takes into account how all the data values are
distributed.

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Variance: The variance is the sum of the squared differences

around the mean divided by the population size.

Formulas > Insert Function (𝑓𝑥 ) > Statistical > VAR.S

Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games

𝑥𝑖
2
1
4
3
0
1
1
0
1
2

𝑆2 =

Formulas > Insert Function (𝑓𝑥 ) > Statistical > VAR.S

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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Standard deviation
The standard deviation, 𝑆, is the square root of the sample
variance:

S = √𝑆 2

Example: Soccer scores:

𝑠 = √𝑆 2 = √1.61 = 1.27

Formulas > Insert Function (𝑓𝑥 ) > Statistical > STDEV.S

Shape
Shape is the pattern of the distribution of data values throughout
the entire range of all the values.
The Skewness
The pattern of the distribution is either symmetrical or skewed.
• Symmetric (Zero skewness)
Mean = Median
• Right skewed (Positively skewed)
Mean > Median
• Left Skewed (Negatively skewed)
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Topic 3: Numerical Descriptive Measures Sadegh Kazemi

Mean < Median

Note that:
• A symmetric distribution has a skewness value of zero.
• A right-skewed distribution has a positive skewness value.
• A left-skewed distribution has a negative skewness value.

❖ Example: Given a sample of 10 soccer games and the number

of goals scored in each game
2, 1, 4, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 2
Skewness= 0.82
Formulas > Insert Function (𝒇𝒙 ) > Statistical > SKEW