Measure of dispersion

UPES, Dehradun
 Averages gives us an idea about the concentration of
the value in the central part of the distribution. If we
know the average alone, we can not form a complete
idea about the distribution.
 They must be supported and supplemented by some
other measures. One such measure is Dispersion.
 Literal meaning of dispersion is ‘Scatteredness’. We
study dispersion to have an idea about homogeneity
or hetrogeneity of the distribution.

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Requisites of an ideal measure of Dispersion:
1. Should be rigidly defined.
2. Should be readily comprehensible and easy to
calculate.
3. Should be based upon all the observations.
4. Should be suitable for further mathematical
treatment.
5. Affected as little as possible by fluctuation of
sampling.
6. Not be affected much by extreme values.

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Various measures of Dispersion
1. Range
2. Quartile Deviation
3. Mean Deviation
4. Standard Deviation

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 Range
Defined as the difference between two extreme
observations of the distribution.

Range= Xmax-Xmin

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 Quartile Deviation(Q)
Quartile deviation or semi quartile range is defined as

Q= (Q3-Q1)/2
Where,
Q1 = First Quartile of the distribution
Q3 = Third Quartile of the distribution
Note:
Quartile deviation is definitely a better measure than
the range as it makes use of 50% of the data. But
since it ignores the other 50% of the data , it can not
be regarded as a reliable measure.
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 Mean Deviation
If Xi : fi , i=1,2,..n represent the frequency distribution
then mean deviation from the average A (usually
mean, median, mode) is given by .
n
1
Mean Deviation from average A =
N
f
i 1
i xi  A
Note
Since mean deviation is based on all the
observations, it is better measure of dispersion than
range and quartile deviation. But the step of
ignoring the signs of the deviations (Xi-A) creates
artificiality and renders it useless for further
mathematical treatment. Friday, March 29, 2019 7
 Standard Deviation
Standard deviation is the positive square root of the
arithmatic mean of the squares of the deviations of
the given values from their arithmatic mean.
If Xi : fi , i=1,2,..n represent the frequency distribution
then Standard deviation
1 n
 i i f x  x  2

N i 1
Where x is the arithmatic mean.

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Note:
The step of squaring the deviation x i  x  overcomes
the drawback of ignoring the signs in mean
deviation. Standard deviation is also suitable for
further mathematical treatment. Moreover, of all
the measures standard deviation is affected least by
fluctuation of sampling.
Thus we see that standard deviation satisfies almost all
the properties.
We may regard Standard deviation as the best and
the most powerful measure of dispersion.

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 Variance

The square of standard deviation is called the variance

and is given by

n
   f i x i  x 
2 1 2

N i 1

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