Handling Data

Summarizing Data
Numerical Summary Measures

Diriba D. (MPH-Epidemiology) 
Tel: 0917793542
E-mail: debaba.tolosa@gmail.com

August, 2022

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 Numerical Summary Measures

• Although frequency distributions serve useful purposes, they

don’t summarize data by indicating the average value and the
spread of the values.
• Single numbers which quantify the characteristics of a
distribution of values.
 Measures of central tendency (location)
 Measures of dispersion (variability)

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 MCT…
m

Characteristics of a good MCT

• A MCT is good or satisfactory if it possesses the following
characteristics.
1. It should be based on all the observations
2. It should not be affected by the extreme values
3. It should have a definite value
4. It should not be subjected to complicated and
tedious calculations
5. It should be capable of further algebraic treatment
6. It should be stable with regard to sampling
• The most common measures of central tendency include:
– Mean
– Median
– Mode
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 Properties of the Arithmetic Mean

 For a given set of data there is one and only one

arithmetic mean (uniqueness).
 Easy to calculate and understand (simple).
 Influenced by each and every value in a data set and
hence affected by extreme values.

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 Pros and cons of mean

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 Exercise 1
Calculate the mean of the following data
1 5 4 3 2 6 7 8 8 10

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 2. Median

• The median is the value which divides the data set into
two equal parts.
• If the number of values is odd, the median will be the
middle value when all values are arranged in order of
magnitude.
• When the number of observations is even, there is no
single middle value but two middle observations.
• In this case, the median is the mean of these two middle
observations, when all observations have been arranged
in the order of their magnitude.
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 Solution

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 Properties of the median

• There is only one median for a given set of data

(uniqueness)
•The median is easy to calculate
•Median is a positional average and hence it is
insensitive to very large or very small values

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 Pros and Cons of median

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 Exercise 2
What will be the median of the following data ?
A) 7 ,2, 5,9,10,12,16
B) 8,7,2,5,12,16

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 4. Mode

• Value that occurs most often

• It is not influenced by extreme values.
• It is possible to have more than one mode or
no mode.
• Used for either numerical or categorical data
• It is not a good summary of the majority of the data
• May be used for describing qualitative data
Example: the type of diagnosis most frequently
occurring in the GRH-The modal diagnosis
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Example 1
• Data are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6
Mode is ___________
Example 2
• Data are: 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8
There are ______modes = _________
This distribution is said to be “bi-modal”
Example 3
• Data are: 2.62, 2.75, 2.76, 2.86, 3.05, 3.12
Mode of these data is/are________
Some distributions have more than one mode:
 Unimodal: A distribution with one mode
 Bimodal: A distribution with two modes
 Trimodal: A distribution with 3 modes

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 Pros and Cons of Mode

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 Which MCT is best
with a given set of data?

• The mean can be used for discrete and continuous data

• The median is appropriate for discrete and continuous
data as well, but can also be used for ordinal data
• The mode can be used for all types of data, but may be
especially useful for nominal and ordinal measurements

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 Measures of Dispersion

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 Range (R)

• The difference between the largest and smallest

observations in a sample.
Range = Maximum value – Minimum value
Example: Data values: 5, 9, 12, 16, 23, 34, 37, 42
Range = 42-5 = 37
• Data set with higher range exhibit more variability

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 Example

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 Properties of range

• It is the simplest crude measure and can be easily

understood
• It takes into account only two values which causes it
to be a poor measure of dispersion
• Very sensitive to extreme outliers

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 Percentiles and quartiles

• Given a set of n observations x1, x2,….xn the pth percentile

is the value of x such that p percent or less of the
observations are less than p and (100-p) percent or less of the
observations are greater than p

• Just as the median is the value above and below which lie
half the set of data, one can define measures (above or
below) which lie other fractional parts of the data.

• The median divides the data into two equal parts

• Other location parameters
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 Percentiles and quartiles
• Subscript on p serves to distinguish one percentile from
another
25th percentile =first quartile
50th percentile =median
75th percentile =third quartile
Q1= 0.25(n+1)th ordered observation
Q2 = 0.5(n+1)th ordered observation
Q3 = 0.75(n+1)th ordered observation

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 Quartiles

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 Inter-Quartile Range (IQR)

• The range provides a crude measure of the

variability in a set of data(computed from only two
values)
• IQR indicates the spread of the middle 50% of the
observations in a data set
IQR = Q3- Q1
• A large IQR indicates a large amount of variability
among the middle 50% of the observations and a
small IQR indicates a small amount of variability
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 Example:
• Suppose the first and third quartile for weights of girls
12 months of age are 8.8 Kg and 10.2 Kg, respectively.
IQR = 10.2 Kg – 8.8 Kg = 1.4
i.e., 50% of the infant girls weigh between 8.8 and 10.2
Kg.

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 Properties of IQR:

• It is a simple measure
• It encloses the central 50% of the observations
• Since it excludes the lowest and highest 25%
values, it eliminates the outlier problem

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• The variance is the average of the squares of the
deviations of individual values taken from the
mean of that set.

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• Variance is used to measure the dispersion of
values relative to the mean.
• When values are close to their mean (narrow
range) the dispersion is less than when there is
scattering over a wide range.

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• The main disadvantage of variance is that its unit is the
square of the unit of the original measurement values
• A variance of a distribution of weight is not expressed in
Kg, but in Kg²
Weight = 36.5 Kg, S² = 257 Kg²
• The variance gives more weight to the extreme values as
compared to those which are near to mean value,
because the difference is squared in variance.

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 Standard deviation (σ, s)
• Standard deviation, is based on deviations from the
mean of the data.
• It is the square root of the variance.
• This produces a measure having the same
scale as that of the individual values.
• Most commonly used
• Shows variation about the mean

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 Example 2

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 Properties of SD

• The SD has the advantage of being expressed in the

same units of measurement as the mean

• SD is considered to be the best measure of dispersion

and is used widely because of the properties of the
theoretical normal curve.

• However, if the units of measurements of variables

of two data sets is not the same, then their variability
can’t be compared by comparing the values of SD.

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 Coefficient of variation (CV)

• When two data sets have different units of

measurements, or their means differ sufficiently in
size, the CV should be used as a measure of dispersion.

• Data with less coefficient of variation is considered

more consistent.
• It expresses the standard deviation as a percentage of the
mean.

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 Example

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 “Give a man a fish, and you
feed him for a day. Teach a
man to fish, and you feed
him for a lifetime.”  Thank
you
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