Descriptive Measures of

Numerical Variables
 Measures of Measure of Measures of
Central Tendency Variability/Dispersion Shape
Mean Range Skewness

Median Interquartile Range Kurtosis

Mode Variance

Geometric Mean Standard Deviation

Harmonic Mean
 Qualities of a Good Average

Easy to understand
Simple to compute
Based on all the items
Not be unduly affected by extreme observations
Rigidly defined
Capable of further algebraic treatment
Sampling stability
 Types of Averages

Arithmetic mean (simple & weighted)

Median
Mode
Geometric mean
Harmonic mean
 Arithmetic Mean
The arithmetic mean is most commonly used average. It is
generally referred as the average or simply mean. The arithmetic
mean or simply mean is defined as the value obtained by dividing
the sum of values by their number or quantity. Therefore, the
mean for individual values X1, X2, X3,……….., Xn shall be denoted
by .
 Arithmetic Mean for Grouped Data

If the number of values is large, they are grouped into a frequency

distribution. In case of grouped data when the data is arranged in the form
of frequency distribution, all the values falling in a class are assumed to be
equal to the class mark or midpoint. If the X1, X2, ……, Xk are the class

marks with f1, f2, ….., fk as the corresponding class frequencies, the sum of

the values in the first class would be f1X1, in the second class f2X2 and so on

the sum of the values in kth class would be fkXk. Hence, the sum of the
values in all the k classes would be
 Merits & Demerits of Arithmetic Mean
Merits:
It can be easily calculated so it is the most used measure of central tendency.
As every item is taken in calculation, it is affected by every item.
As the mathematical formula is rigid one, therefore the result remains the same.
Fluctuations are minimum for this measure of central tendency.
As it is rigidly defined, it is mostly used for comparing the various issues.
Demerits 
It cannot be located graphically.
A single item can bring big change in the result. 
Its value will be effective only if the frequency is normally distributed. Otherwise
in case skewness is more, the results become ineffective.
 Weighted Arithmetic Mean

When the values are not of equal importance, we assign them

certain numerical values to express their relative importance. These
numerical values are called weights. If X1, X2, ……, Xk have weights

W1, W2, ……., W3, then the weighted arithmetic mean or the

weighted mean, which is denoted as , is calculated by the following
formula;
 Geometric Mean
The geometric mean, G, of a set of n positive values X1, X2, ……, Xn is
the nth root of the product of the values. Mathematically the
formula for geometric mean will be as follows;
 Harmonic Mean

The harmonic mean, H, of a set of n values X1, X2, ……, Xn is the
reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the values.
Mathematically, the formula for harmonic mean will be as
follows;
 Median
Median is a value in series such that it divides the series exactly in halves. This
means one half of the series above median contains all values greater than it
and the other half contains all values smaller than the median. Hence median is
the mid-value.

Mode
Mode simply refers to the value that occurs the maximum number of times in a
distribution.
Which is Best—the Mean, Median, or Mode?

When you have a symmetrical distribution for continuous data, the

mean, median, and mode are equal. In this case, analysts tend to
use the mean because it includes all of the data in the calculations.
However, if you have a skewed distribution, the median is often
the best measure of central tendency.

When you have ordinal data, the median or mode is usually the

best choice. For categorical data, you have to use the mode.
Does all data have a median, mode and mean?

Yes and no. All continuous data has a median, mode and mean.
However, strictly speaking, ordinal data has a median and mode only,
and nominal data has only a mode. However, a consensus has not
been reached among statisticians about whether the mean can be
used with ordinal data, and you can often see a mean reported for
Likert data in research.