MEASURES OF SKEWNESS,

KURTOSIS AND MOMENTS

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................2
SKEWNESS ..............................................................................................................................................2
Test of skewness – ........................................................................................................................................... 3
MEASUREMENT OF SKEWNESS................................................................................................................3
Karl Pearson’s Measure .................................................................................................................................... 3
Bowley’s Measure............................................................................................................................................ 4
Kelly’s Measure ............................................................................................................................................... 5
KURTOSIS ...............................................................................................................................................7
Kelly’s measure ................................................................................................................................................ 7
MOMENTS ..............................................................................................................................................7
Calculation of Moments ................................................................................................................................... 8
Deviation taken from mean ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Deviations were taken from the arbitrary origin, A.................................................................................................................... 8
Conversion of Moments about the arbitrary origin to Central moments .................................................................................. 9
Conversion of Central moments to Moments about an Arbitrary origin ................................................................................. 10
Significance of Moments ................................................................................................................................ 10

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INTRODUCTION
Measures of central tendency give an idea about the average value in a distribution.

Measures of dispersion help us to determine the extent to which other values disperse or cluster around
the mean.

But there are also a lot of other aspects of a frequency distribution that need to be considered, like as

• Skewness
• Kurtosis
• Moments

SKEWNESS
The frequency distribution can be either symmetrical or asymmetrical

A lack of symmetry in a distribution is called skewness.

For example –

• Distribution of income and wealth in an economy. The majority of people earn less than the
national average, and there are very few super-rich or wealthy individuals.

• Distribution of scores in CBSE examinations. So many students achieve above-average grades.

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Asymmetrical
Symmetrical
Positive skewness Negative skewness

Mean = Median = Mode Mean > Median > Mode Mean < Median < Mode

(Q3 - Median) = (Median - Q1) (Q3 - Median) > (Median - Q1) (Q3 - Median) < (Median - Q1)

Test of skewness –
A distribution is skewed if

1. When plotted on a graph, it does not yield a normal, bell-shaped curve. That is to say, when the
distribution is cut from the middle, the two halves are not mirror-image of each other.

2. The values of mean, median and mode are not equal.

3. The two quartiles are not equidistant from each median. Thus, (𝑄3 − 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛) ≠ (𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 − 𝑄1 ).

Similarly, if the extreme deciles 𝐷1 and 𝐷9 , or the percentiles 𝑃10 and 𝑃90 are not located equally
away from the median.

4. The sum of positive deviations from the median (or mode) is different from the sum of negative
deviations from it.

MEASUREMENT OF SKEWNESS
Karl Pearson’s Measure

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The greater the difference between the Mean and Mode, the greater will be the degree of skewness.

If, Mean > Mode → Positive skewness

Mean < Mode → Negative skewness

Mean = Mode → Zero skewness

Skewness is expressed in the units of measurement of the original data.

Karl Pearson’s Co-efficient of skewness

Co-efficient of skewness is the relative measure of skewness

Replacing Mode by

Mode = 3Median – 2Mean

This is referred to as Karl Pearson’s second measure of skewness. It is used where the Mode is not clearly
defined.

The value of this coefficient ranges from -3 to +3 because the mean is always within one standard
deviation of any median.

Bowley’s Measure
Based on the relationship between the median and two quartiles,

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If the former of these is greater than the latter, the skewness is positive and if it is smaller than that, the
distribution is negatively skewed.

Positive skewness Negative skewness

(Q3 – Me) > (Me – Q1) (Q3 – Me) < (Me – Q1)

Bowley’s Co-efficient of skewness

The value of this measure varies between – 1 to + 1.

• - 1 results when the median equals the upper quartile.

• +1 results when the median coincides with the lower quartile.

This measure is usefully employed when the distribution is open-ended because the calculation of median
and quartiles ordinarily does not pose problems in such distributions.

Kelly’s Measure
It is based on the relationship between the median, 10th percentile and 90th percentile of a distribution.

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However, a modification of Kelly’s measure is available in the form of what is called the percentile
measure of skewness.

Important to Note :
• The values of the coefficients of skewness are not comparable to each other.
There is no reason to expect them to be same for a given distribution.

• Pearson’s measure is the best one to use because its calculation requires
consideration of all values of the distribution.

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KURTOSIS
The two distributions may have the same measure of central tendency and the same dispersion, but they
may be materially different from each other in respect of the height their curves would make at the
middle.

Kurtosis refers to the degree of peakedness (height) in a distribution.

• Mesokurtic – those with a normal or average height

• Leptokurtic – those with more than average height

• Platykurtic – those with less than average height

Kelly’s measure
Co-efficient of kurtosis

If K = 0 Mesokurtic
If K > 0 Platykurtic
If K < 0 Leptokurtic

MOMENTS
The moment is useful in examining the different characteristics of a distribution.

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It can help us in finding the central tendency, dispersion, skewness and kurtosis.

Calculation of Moments
Deviation taken from mean
When the deviations are taken from the mean.

N = Sum of frequency in case of frequency distribution

• It is also known as moments about mean or central moments.

• The sum of deviation from the arithmetic mean is equal to zero. So, 𝝁1 = 0

• 𝝁2 is equal to the variance.

Deviations were taken from the arbitrary origin, A

When the deviations are taken from an arbitrary point, A.

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• Such moments are also known as moments about A (for example, moments about 5 if A = 5)

• When A = 0, the calculated moments are known as moments about the origin (or moments about
zero).

• The first moment about zero (or origin) is equal to the mean.

Conversion of Moments about the arbitrary origin to Central moments

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Conversion of Central moments to Moments about an Arbitrary origin

Significance of Moments
Moments help in the study of the different aspects of the formation of a frequency distribution.

For example,

• Mean
• Variance
• Skewness
• Kurtosis

Arithmetic mean
The first moment about zero gives the arithmetic mean.

Variance
The second central moment is equal to the variance.

Skewness
The third moment about the mean is a measure of absolute skewness in the distribution.

The relative measure of skewness is given by beta-one (𝛽1 ).

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If the value of 𝛽1 is equal to zero, then the distribution is symmetrical. And the greater its value, the higher
the extent of skewness in the distribution.

𝛽1 does not reveal whether the skewness is positive or negative because the numerator nor the
denominator can be a negative quantity.

To know whether the skewness is positive or negative, we have another relative measure of skewness
which is gamma-one (g1). It is equal to the square root of 𝛽1

If g1 = 0 Symmetrical distribution
If g1 > 0 Positive skewness
If g1 < 0 Negative skewness

Kurtosis
The fourth moment about the mean is used as an absolute measure of Kurtosis.

The measure of kurtosis is given by beta-two (𝛽2 ).

If 𝛽2 = 3 Mesokurtic
If 𝛽2 > 3 Leptokurtic
If 𝛽2 < 3 Platykurtic

The gamma (g2) measure is –

g2 = 𝛽2 − 3

If g2 = 0 Mesokurtic
If g2 > 0 Leptokurtic
If g2 < 0 Platykurtic

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