Lesson 4.

6 Measure of Dispersion for Ungrouped Data

In statistics, measures of dispersion or also known as the measure of

spread or measures of variability is used to find out how spread out or close to
the data values are and how the various elements behave with respect to the
central tendency. Usually, it comes with the measures of central tendency. The
measure of dispersion includes range, interquartile range, absolute deviation,
variance, and standard deviation.

 Range
Range is denoted by R known as the easiest measure of dispersion. It
refers to the difference between the greatest value and the least value. The
formula is as follows:

𝑅 = ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑡 − 𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡

Example:
Given the data set {5, 8, 7, 12, 12, 13, 18}

Solution: The value of 13 tells that the greatest value

R = 18 – 5 and least value is 13 steps away from each
R = 13 other. Furthermore, with the distance 13, all
the values of the sample are contained.

 Interquartile Range
It is also called as the “midspread.” It refers to the difference between
the 75𝑡ℎ and 25𝑡ℎ percentile or between the upper and lower quartile. It is
denoted by IQR. The formula as it follows:

𝐼𝑄𝑅 = 𝑄3 − 𝑄1

Example:
Given: {4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15}, find the IQR.
Solution:
Q1 = 5

𝑘(𝑁 + 1) 𝐼𝑄𝑅 = 𝑄3 − 𝑄1
𝑄𝑘 =
4
𝐼𝑄𝑅 = 11 − 5
3(7 + 1)
𝑄3 = 𝑰𝑸𝑹 = 𝟔
4

𝑄3 = 6𝑡ℎ , 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑄3 = 11
 Standard Deviation
It is the square root of its variance. A low standard deviation show that
the data set is close to the mean. While a high standard deviation shows that
the spread of data points is of wider range.

Formula for standard deviation of population:

∑(𝒙 − 𝝁)𝟐
𝝈= √
𝒏

where:
𝜎 = 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑥 = 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
𝜇 = 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑛 = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

Formula for standard deviation of sample:

∑(𝒙 − x̅ )𝟐
𝒔= √
𝒏−𝟏
where:
𝑠 = 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑥 = 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
x̅ = 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑛 = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

Example:
A group of mountaineers went on hiking to Mt. Pulag, Philippines to
study the different species of plants existing in that area. The ages
of the mountaineers are 34, 35, 35, 46, 49, 32. Find the standard
deviation (population and sample).
Solution:
 First, calculate the mean.
34+35+35+46+49+32
o x̅ = = 𝟒𝟎. 𝟏𝟕
6

 Next, calculate how far away each value/observation is from the

mean. (x - x̅)
X x̅ X - x̅
34 40.7 -6.166
35 40.7 -5.166
35 40.7 4.833
46 40.7 5.833
49 40.7 8.833
32 40.7 -8.166
 Then, calculate the square of each difference of raw score and
the mean. And get the total.
X x̅ X - x̅ (X - x̅)2
34 40.7 -6.166 38.0689
35 40.7 -5.166 26.7289
35 40.7 4.833 23.3289
46 40.7 5.833 33.9889
49 40.7 8.833 77.9689
32 40.7 -8.166 66.7489
∑(𝒙 − x̅)𝟐 = 𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
 Using the formula:
a. Population Standard Deviation

∑(𝒙 − 𝝁)𝟐
𝝈= √
𝟔

𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
𝝈= √
𝒏

𝝈 = √𝟒𝟒. 𝟒𝟕
𝝈 = 𝟔. 𝟔𝟕

b. Sample Standard deviation

∑(𝒙 − x̅ )𝟐
𝒔= √
𝒏−𝟏

𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
𝒔= √
𝟔−𝟏

𝒔 = √𝟓𝟑. 𝟑𝟕
𝒔 = 𝟕. 𝟑𝟏
 Variance
It is the square of the standard deviation of the data. It measures how far
a set of numbers are spread out from their average value.

Formula for population variance:

𝟐
∑(𝒙 − 𝝁)𝟐
𝝈 =
𝒏

where:
𝜎 = 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑥 = 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
𝜇 = 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑛 = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

Formula for sample variance

𝟐
∑(𝒙 − x̅ )𝟐
𝒔 =
𝒏−𝟏

where:
𝑠 = 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑥 = 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
x̅ = 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑛 = 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

Example:
A group of mountaineers went on hiking to Mt. Pulag, Philippines to
study the different species of plants existing in that area. The ages
of the mountaineers are 34, 35, 35, 46, 49, 32. What is the variance
of their ages?
Solution:
 First, calculate the mean.
34+35+35+46+49+32
o x̅ = = 𝟒𝟎. 𝟏𝟕
6

 Next, calculate how far away each value/observation is from the

mean. (x - x̅)
X x̅ X - x̅
34 40.7 -6.166
35 40.7 -5.166
35 40.7 4.833
46 40.7 5.833
49 40.7 8.833
32 40.7 -8.166
 Then, calculate the square of each difference of raw score and
the mean. And get the total.
X x̅ X - x̅ (X - x̅)2
34 40.7 -6.166 38.0689
35 40.7 -5.166 26.7289
35 40.7 4.833 23.3289
46 40.7 5.833 33.9889
49 40.7 8.833 77.9689
32 40.7 -8.166 66.7489
∑(𝒙 − x̅)𝟐 = 𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
 Using the formula:
a. Population Variance

𝟐
∑(𝒙 − 𝝁)𝟐
𝝈 =
𝒏

𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
𝝈𝟐 =
𝟔
𝟐
𝝈 = 𝟒𝟒. 𝟒𝟕

b. Sample Variance

𝟐
∑(𝒙 − x̅ )𝟐
𝒔 =
𝒏−𝟏
𝟐𝟔𝟔. 𝟖𝟑𝟑𝟒
𝒔𝟐 =
𝟔−𝟏
𝒔𝟐 = 𝟓𝟑. 𝟑𝟕