MEASURES

OF
SKEWNESS
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 Skewness is a
measure of the
asymmetry of a
distribution. A
distribution is
asymmetrical when
its left and right side
do not mirror
images.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 A distribution can
have right (or
positive), left (or
negative), or zero
skewness. A
right-skewed
distribution is longer
on the right side of its
peak, and a
left-skewed
distribution is longer
on the left side of its
peak:
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 You might want to
calculate the skewness of
distribution to:
Describe the distribution
of a variable alongside
other descriptive statistics

Determine if a variable
is normally distributed. A
normal distribution has
zero skews and is an
assumption of many
statistical procedures.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 Table of contents
What is zero skew?
What is right skew
(positive skew)?
What is left skew
(negative skew)?
How to calculate
skewness
What to do if your data is
skewed
Practice questions
Frequently asked
questions about skewness
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 What is zero skews?
When a distribution has zero
skews, it is symmetrical. Its
left and right sides are mirror
images.
Normal distributions have
zero skews, but they’re not
the only distributions with
zero skew. Any symmetrical
distribution, such as a
uniform distribution or some
bimodal (two-peak)
distributions, will also have
zero skews.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 The easiest way to check if a
variable has a skewed
distribution is to plot it in a
histogram. For example, the
weights of six-week-old
chicks are shown in the
histogram below.
The distribution is
approximately symmetrical,
with the observations
distributed similarly on the left
and right sides of its peak.
Therefore, the distribution has
approximately zero skews.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 In a
distribution
with zero skew,
the mean and m
edian are equal.
Zero skew:
mean = median

HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME

SUBJECT TEACHER
 Although a theoretical
distribution (e.g., For example, the
the z distribution) can mean chick weight is
have zero skews, real data 261.3 g, and the
almost always have at median is 258 g. The
least a bit of skew.
However, if a distribution mean and median
is close to being are almost equal.
symmetrical, it usually is They aren’t perfectly
considered to have zero equal because the
skews for practical
purposes, such as
sample distribution
verifying model has a very small
assumptions. skew.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 What is the right
skew (positive
skew)?
A right-skewed
distribution is longer
on the right side of
its peak than on its
left. Right skew is
also referred to as
positive skew.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 A right-skewed distribution is longer on the right
side of its peak than on its left. Right skew is also
referred to as positive skew.
You can think of skewness in terms of tails. A tail is a
long, tapering end of a distribution. It indicates that
there are observations at one of the extreme ends of
the distribution, but that they’re relatively infrequent.
A right-skewed distribution has a long tail on its right
side.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 The number of sunspots observed per year, shown in
the histogram below, is an example of a right-skewed
distribution. The sunspots, which are dark, cooler
areas on the surface of the sun, were observed by
astronomers between 1749 and 1983.
The distribution is right-skewed because it’s longer
on the right side of its peak. There is a long tail on
the right, meaning that every few decades there is a
year when the number of sunspots observed is a lot
higher than average.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 The mean of a right-skewed distribution is almost always greater than
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME its median. That’s because extreme values (the values in the tail) affect the
SUBJECT TEACHER mean more than the median.
Right skew: mean > median
 For example,
the mean
number of
sunspots
observed per
year was 48.6,
which is
greater than
the median of
39.
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
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 What is left skew (negative
skew)?
A left-skewed distribution is longer
on the left side of its peak than on its
right. In other words, a left-skewed
distribution has a long tail on its left
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME side. Left skew is also referred to as
SUBJECT TEACHER
negative skew.
 Test scores often follow a left-skewed
distribution, with most students performing
relatively well and a few students performing far
below average. The histogram below shows
scores for the zoology portion of a standardized
test taken by Indian students at the end of high
school.
The distribution is left-skewed because it’s
longer on the left side of its peak. The long
tail on its left represents the small proportion
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
of students who received very low scores.
 The mean of a
left-skewed
distribution is almost
always less than
its median.
Left skew: mean <
medianFor example,
the mean zoology test
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
score was 53.7, which
SUBJECT TEACHER is less than the
 How to calculate skewness
There are several formulas to measure
skewness. One of the simplest is
Pearson’s median skewness. It takes
advantage of the fact that the mean and
median are unequal in a skewed
distribution.
Pearson’s median skewness = 3 *
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME (Mean − Median) / Standard
SUBJECT TEACHER

deviation
 Pearson’s median skewness tells you how
many standard deviations separate the mean and
median.
Real observations rarely have a Pearson’s
median skewness of exactly 0. If your data has a
value close to 0, you can consider it to have zero
skew. There’s no standard convention for what
counts as “close enough” to 0 (although this
research suggests that 0.4 and −0.4 are
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME reasonable cutoffs for large samples).
SUBJECT TEACHER
 Example: Calculating Pearson’s
median skewnessPearson’s
median skewness of the number of
sunspots observed per year:
•Mean = 48.6
•Median = 39
•Standard deviation = 39.5
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
 Calculation
•Pearson’s median skewness = 3
(Mean − Median) / Standard
deviation
•Pearson’s median skewness = 3
(48.6 − 39) / 39.5
•Pearson’s median skewness = 0.73
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME
SUBJECT TEACHER
TO INTERPRET THE VALUE OF
KURTOSIS THE FOLLOWING ARE TO
BE CONSIDERED:
THE DISTRIBUTION IS SAID TO BE
A. MESOKURTIC IF K = 3
B. LEPTOKURTIC IF K > 3 AND
C. PLATYKURTIC IF K< 3
ACTIVITY: MEASURES OF SKEWNESS AND KURTOSIS
CALCULATE THE SKEWNESS FOR THE DATA SHOWN

Class f Cf Xm fXm (X-µ) (X-µ)2 f(X-µ)2 (X-µ)3 f(X-µ)2

Interva
l
72-74 3

75-77 8

78-80 17

81-83 11

84-86 12

87-89 6
 Measures of SKEWNESS
References:

https://www.scribbr.com/statisti
cs/skewness/

HELEN R. SIEMBRE, MAME

SUBJECT TEACHER