Five Number

Summaries Boxplots
Box and Whiskers Plot
 It displays data broken into four quartiles, each with an equal number of data values
graphically. It doesn’t show frequency and each individual statistics, but it clearly
shows where the middle of the data lies. It can be used to analyze how data is skewed.
 The difference of boxplots to other methods of displaying data is that, boxplots show
outliers while others do not.
Outliers are observation points that are distant or too far away from other
observations. They “lie outside” the range in which we expect them. Outliers are values
that lie more than one and half times the length of the box from either end of the box.
 Five number Summaries of Box plot are the minimum, the first quartile, median, the
third quartile and the maximum.
Quartile – are the natural extension of the median that divide a distribution into four
equal parts.
Source: https://towardsdatascience.com/understanding-boxplots-5e2df7bcbd51
Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/boxplots.html
How to Find a Five-Number Summary: Steps

1) Arrange the given data in ascending order.

2) Find the median of the data.
3) Find Q (lower quartile) and Q (upper quartile)
1 3

4) Find the extreme values.

 minimum = Q – 1.5IQR
1

 maximum = Q + 1.5IQR
3

IQR – Interquartile range = Q – Q

3 1

5) Write down your summary found in the above steps.

 Example:
The aptitude test scores of 11 applicants shows below for managerial position in one
restaurant in the city.
81 89 86 82 84 40 75 88 78 87 90
1) Arrange the given data in ascending order.
40 75 78 81 82 84 86 87 88 89 90
2) Find the median of the data.
median = 84
3) Find Q1 (lower quartile) and Q3 (upper quartile)
(40 75 78 81 82 ) 84 (86 87 88 89 90)
Q1 = 78 and Q3 88
 Example:
The aptitude test scores of 11 applicants shows below for managerial position in one restaurant
in the city.
40 75 78 81 82 84 86 87 88 89 90
4) Find the extreme values. (40 75 78 81 82 ) 84 (86 87 88 89 90)
Q1 = 78 and Q3 = 88
 minimum = Q1 – 1.5IQR
 maximum = Q3 + 1.5IQR
IQR – Interquartile range = Q3 – Q1
IQR = 88-78 = 10
minimum = 78-1.5(10) maximum = 88 + 1.5(10)
= 78 – 15 = 88 + 15
= 63 = 103
5) Write down your summary found in the above steps.
Q1 = 78, Q3 = 88, median = 84, minimum = 63, and maximum = 103
 Example:
The aptitude test scores of 11 applicants shows below for managerial position in one
restaurant in the city.

Q1 = 78, Q3 88, median = 84, minimum = 63, and maximum = 103

40 75 78 81 82 84 86 87 88 89 90

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110

50% of applicants scored between 78 and 88. There is one

outlier, specifically the applicant who got a score of 40.
 Example:
The weights (in kg) of 12 hotel crews are shown below
61 64 56 52 54 62 63 58 58 59 78 57
1) Arrange the given data in ascending order.
52 54 56 57 58 58 59 61 62 63 64 78
2) Find the median of the data.
median = 58.5
3) Find Q1 (lower quartile) and Q3 (upper quartile)
(52 54 56 57 58 58) (59 61 62 63 64 78)
Q1 = 56.5 and Q3 62.5
 Example:
The weights (in kg) of 12 hotel crews are shown below
52 54 56 57 58 58 59 61 62 63 64 78
4) Find the extreme values.
 minimum = Q – 1.5IQR
1

 maximum = Q + 1.5IQR
3

IQR – Interquartile range = Q – Q

3 1

IQR = 62.5-56.5 = 6
minimum = 56.5-1.5(6) maximum = 62.5 + 1.5(6)
= 56.5 – 9 = 62.5 + 9
= 47.5 = 71.5
5) Write down your summary found in the above steps.
Q1 = 56.5, Q3 62.5, median =58.5 , minimum = 47.5, and maximum = 71.5
 Example:
The weights (in kg) of 12 hotel crews are shown below
52 54 56 57 58 58 59 61 62 63 64 78
Q1 = 56.5, Q3 62.5, median =58.5 , minimum = 47.5, and maximum = 71.5

46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 78
Learning Resources

 https://towardsdatascience.com/understanding-boxplots-5e2df7bcbd51
 https://www.simplypsychology.org/boxplots.html