MESURES OF POSITION

An introduction
The measures of position are used to locate the
relative position of a specific data value in
relation to the rest of the data.

The most common measures of position are

Standard scores ( or z-scores), Percentiles,
Deciles, and Quartiles
 Standard Score or z-score
• The z-score measures
value  mean
how many standard z
s tan dard deviation
deviations a single data
item is from the mean. z  x  x for samples
It’s used when direct s
comparison of raw
scores is impossible.
 Percentiles
• A percentile measure the position of a single
data item based on the percentage of data
items below that single data item.
• Divide the data set into 100 equal groups
 Deciles
• Deciles are the nine values (denoted D1, D2,…,
D9) along the scale that divide a data set into
ten equal parts.
(10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, and
90%)
 Quartiles
• Quartiles are the three values (Q1, Q2, Q3)
that divide the data set into four
(approximately) equal parts. (25%, 50%, and
75%)
• The second quartile, Q2 (50%) is the median.
• The first quartile, Q1 (25%) is the median of
items below Q2.
• The third quartile, Q3 (75%) is the median of
items above Q2.