MEASURE OF CENTRAL

TENDENCY
Central Tendency
• A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to

describe a set of data by identifying the central position within that set
of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called
measures of central location. They are also classed as summary
statistics. 
• The measures of central tendency are generally known as Averages

• Common measures of central tendency include the mean, median,

and mode
  Arithmetic mean
– This is the most popular and useful measure of
central location
Sum of the measurements
Mean =
Number of measurements

Sample mean Population mean

Sample size Population size

 Arithmetic Mean

• Six men with high serum cholesterol participated in a study to examine

the effects of diet on cholesterol
• At the beginning of the study, their serum cholesterol levels (mg/dL)
were:
366, 327, 274, 292, 274, 230
Determine the mean
 The median
• The median of a set of measurements is the value that falls in the middle
when the measurements are arranged in order of magnitude.
• The median is a value at or below which 50% of the ordered data lie.

Example
Seven employee salaries were recorded Suppose one employee’s salary of 31,000
(in 1000s) : 28, 60, 26, 32, 30, 26, 29. was added to the group recorded before.
Find the median salary. Find the median salary.

Odd number of observations Even number of observations

26,26,28,29,30,32,60 There are two middle values!
29.5
26,26,28,29,
26,26,28,29,
26,26,28,29,
26,26,28,29,30,32,60,31
30,32,60,31
30,32,60,31
, 30, 31,32,60
First, sort the salaries. Then, locate the value
in the middle First, sort the salaries. Then, locate the values
in the middle
 Median

••   Middle most or most central item in the set of ordered numbers; it

separates the distribution into two equal halves
• If odd n, middle value of sequence
• if X = [1,2,4,6,9,10,12,14,17]
• then 9 is the median
• If even n, average of 2 middle values
• if X = [1,2,4,6,9,10,11,12,14,17]
• then 9.5 is the median; i.e., (9+10)/2
• The median is unaffected by extreme values, making it a better
measure of central tendency, better describing the “typical person”
than the mean when data are skewed.
• Formula median= observation of the arranged data
Example 1

•3,  8, 9, 4, 12, 34, 21, 7, 1

1st Arrange the data set in ascending or descending order.
1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 21, 34
Then count the numbers which are 9, As
which is odd, so
Median= observation
Median= observation
So, Median = 5th observation
And in arranged data set 5th observation is 8
So, Median = 8
Example 2

  14, 10, 22, 18, 20

•12,
1st Arrange the data set in ascending or descending order.
10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22
Then count the numbers which are 6.
So which is even. So for even data set Median is
observation
Obs.=3.5th observation
=3rd obs. + 0.5(4th obs.-3rd obs.)
 Mode

• The mode is the most frequently occurring number in a

distribution
• if X = [1,2,4,7,7,7,8,10,12,14,17]
• then 7 is the mode
• Easy to see in a simple frequency distribution
• A set of data may have more than one mode or no mode at
all when each observation occurs the same number of times.
• A distribution with a single mode is said to be unimodal
• A distribution with more than one mode is said to be
bimodal, trimodal, etc., or in general, multimod
• Mode is not affected by extreme values
• Appropriate for qualitative data
Examples
Ex. 1- 30,12, 20, 20, 34, 44, 30, 15,11,30, 25, 20, 25

In this data set you see 20 and 30 are repeated three times
so in this case Mode = 20, 30

Ex. 2
male, female , female, male, male, male, female

Mode=male
Example

A professor of statistics wants to report the results of a midterm

exam, taken by 100 students. Find the mean, median, and mode,
and describe the information they provide.
The mean provides information
about the over-all performance level
of the class.

The Median indicates that half of the

class received a grade below 81,
and half of the class received a grade
above 81.

The mode must be used when data is

qualitative. If marks are classified by
letter grade, the frequency of each
grade can be calculated. Then, the mode
becomes a logical measure to compute.
Summary of when to use the mean, median and mode

The following summary table to know what the best measure of

central tendency is with respect to the different type of variables.

Best measure of
Type of Variable
central tendency

Nominal Mode
Ordinal Median
Interval/Ratio (not skewed) Mean
Interval/Ratio (skewed) Median
 Quartiles
• Quartiles split the ranked data into 4 segments with an equal
number of values per segment

25% 25% 25% 25%

Q1 Q2 Q3
•  The first quartile, Q1, is the value for which 25% of the
observations are smaller and 75% are larger
• Q2 is the same as the median (50% are smaller, 50% are larger)
• Only 25% of the observations are greater than the third quartile

• Formula for quartile observation of the arranged data, where

 Deciles
••  
In descriptive statistics the deciles of a distribution are
the nine values that split the data set into ten equal parts. , so that
each part represents 1/10 of the sample or population. These nine
values are denoted by .

• Formula for Decile observation of the arranged data, where

 Percentiles
• 
• In a similar way, the percentiles of a distribution are
the 99 values that split the data set into a hundred equal parts.
These percentiles can be used to categorize the individuals into
percentile 1, ..., percentile 99. Percentiles are denoted by
.
• Formula for Percentile observation of the arranged data, where

• Note that , , , , etc.

Example
•Following
  are the number of calories in salads at several
popular restaurants. Find mean, median, mode, lower
quartile , upper quartile , , and
1165 1180 1090 1595 900 1270 1005 1180 700
1260 590 860 840 755 1450 1100 985 1120
940 730 605 920 855 935 835
Sol.
•(Most
  repeated value)
For median and Quantiles, arrange the data in ascending
order
590 605 700 730 755 835 840 855 860
900 920 935 940 985 1005 1090 1100 1120
1165 1180 1180 1260 1270 1450 1595
 Median= observation

observation.

=
• 

=
Similarly,
• 

=
(Similarly
 Arithmetic Mean for grouped data.
Sample mean Population mean

Weight
(grams)
65-84 9 74.5 670.5
85-104 10 94.5 945.0
105-124 17 114.5 1946.5
125-144 10 134.5 1345.0
145-164 5 154.5 772.5
165-184 4 174.5 698.0
185-204 5 194.5 972.5
Mode for grouped data
 
•Formula:

Mode =

where = lower class boundary of the modal class

= frequency of the modal class
= frequency associated with the class preceding the modal class
= frequency associated with the class following the modal class
and = width of class interval.
 Marks 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99
Example No. of 8 87 190 304 211 85 20
students

Class limits Class boundaries frequency

30-39 29.5-39.5 8
40-49 39.5-49.5 87
50-59 49.5-59.5 190
60-69 59.5-69.5 304 Modal class
70-79 69.5-79.5 211
80-89 79.5-89.5 85
90-99 89.5-99.5 20

  Mode= 59.5+

= 65 marks
 Median for grouped data
Marks 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99
No of students 8 87 190 304 211 85 20

 Solution:
Formula; Median = l+ ()
Where;
= lower class boundary of median class
= class interval
= frequency of median class
= cumulative frequency of the previous class from
median group
 Class Class frequency Cumulative
limits boundari frequency
es
30-39 29.5-39.5 8 8
40-49 39.5-49.5 87 8+87=95
50-59 49.5-59.5 190 95+190=285
60-69 59.5-69.5 304 285+304=589 Median class
70-79 69.5-79.5 211 589+211=800
80-89 79.5-89.5 85 800+85=885
90-99 89.5-99.5 20 885+20=905
∑f =
n=905

 = = 452.5
 
Median = l+ ()
Here, l= 59.5, h=10 f= 304 & C= 285

So put the values in formula

Median = 59.5+ = 65 marks

 
Quantiles for grouped data

For

For
= Median
For

Similarly write the formulas for deciles & percentiles

For example:

Remember that, Q2 = D5 = P50 = Median

Class limits Class frequency Cumulative
boundaries frequency
30-39 29.5-39.5 8 8
40-49 39.5-49.5 87 8+87=95
Quartile
50-59 49.5-59.5 90 95+190=285 Q1 class
60-69 59.5-69.5 304 285+304=589
70-79 69.5-79.5 211 589+211=800
80-89 79.5-89.5 85 800+85=885
90-99 89.5-99.5 20 885+20=905

 Now = 226.25 Which give the quartile class

So, in this case
& Put the values
So, = 56 marks
Similarly, we can find by using 3n/4 class.