Skewness and kurtosis

Descriptive Statistics
• Measures of Central Tendency
• Measures of Location
• Measures of Dispersion
• Measures of Symmetry
• Measures of Peakedness
 Skewness
• The term skewness refers to the lack of symmetry. The lack of symmetry in a
distribution is always determined with reference to a normal or Gaussian distribution.
Note that a normal distribution is always symmetrical.
• Measures of skewness shows where most observation lie.
• The skewness may be either positive or negative. When the skewness of a distribution
is positive (negative), the distribution is called a positively (negatively) skewed
distribution. Absence of skewness makes a distribution symmetrical.
• It is important to emphasize that skewness of a distribution cannot be determined
simply my inspection.
 Measures of Symmetry
• Skewness
• Symmetric distribution
• Positively skewed distribution
• Negatively skewed distribution
 Measure of Symmetry
• If Mean > Mode, the skewness is positive.
• If Mean < Mode, the skewness is negative.
• If Mean = Mode, the skewness is zero.
 Measures of Symmetry
• Many distribution are not symmetrical.
• They may be tail off to right or to the left and as such said to be skewed.
• One measure of absolute skewness is difference between mean and mode.
A measure of such would not be true meaningful because it depends of the
units of measurement.
• The simplest measure of skewness is the Pearson’s coefficient of
skewness:
Measures of Skewness
Exercise-1: Find coefficient of Skewness using Pearson’s and
Bowley’s formula
Income of f x fx f(<)
daily (Frequenc (Midpoint cumulat
Labour y) ) ive

40-50 3 45 135 3 2025 6075

50-60 5 55 275 8 3025 15125
60-70 10 65 650 18 4225 42250
70-80 8 75 600 26 5625 45000
80-90 4 85 340 30 7225 28900
90-100 4 95 380 34 9025 36100
100-110 1 105 105 35 11025 11025
Sum N=35 2485 42175 184475
 Solution

• Using the formula below

• 1st Step
• Make sure that you calculate the following measures
• Mean, Median and Standard deviation
• From previous slide the
Mean = fx/n = 2485/35 = 71
Median = =60+(18-8)(10)/10=70
Median position=35/2 = 17.5 = 18
 Solution conti…
• Calculating the standard deviation, the first step would be calculating the
variance
• =184475-176435/34 = 236.47
s =15.38
• The variance for grouped data
• Skp =3(71-70)/15.38 = 0.195(positively skewed)
 Measures of Peakedness
• Kurtosis:
• is the degree of peakedness of a distribution, usually taken in relation to a normal
distribution.

• Leptokurtic
• Platykurtic
• Mesokurtic
 Kurtosis

• A curve having relatively higher peak than the normal curve,

is known as Leptokurtic.
• On the other hand, if the curve is more flat-topped than the
normal curve, it is called Platykurtic.
• A normal curve itself is called Mesokurtic, which is neither
too peaked nor too flat-topped.
 Measures of Kurtosis

• If the distribution is leptokurtic.

• If , the distribution is platykurtic.
• If , the distribution is mesokurtic.
The most important measure of kurtosis based on the second
and fourth moments is
What does skewness and kurtosis tell us?
• “Skewness essentially measures the symmetry of the distribution, while
kurtosis determines the heaviness of the distribution tails.”
• The understanding shape of data is a crucial action. It helps to understand
where the most information is lying and analyze the outliers in a given data.
 Box Plot
• A box plot is a graphical summary of data that is based on a five-number summary.
• The Box-plots provide another wat to identify outliers.
Five number summary
• The following five numbers are used to summarise the data
• Smallest value(min value)
• First Quartile
• Median
• Third Quartile
• Largest value(max value)
• The easiest way to develop a five-number summary is to place the data in ascending order.
 Example of a Box plot
The following data are the heights of 40 students in a statistics class.
59; 60; 61; 62; 62; 63; 63; 64; 64; 64; 65; 65; 65; 65; 65; 65; 65; 65; 65; 66; 66; 67; 67; 68; 68; 6
9; 70; 70; 70; 70; 70; 71; 71; 72; 72; 73; 74; 74; 75; 77
Construct a box plot with the following properties; the calculator instructions for the minimum
and maximum values as well as the quartiles follow the example.

 Minimum value = 59
 Maximum value = 77
 Q1: First quartile = 64.5
 Q2: Second quartile or median= 66
 Q3: Third quartile = 70
 Example: Five-number summary
The monthly starting salaries shown are for a sample of 12 business school
graduates. Construct a five number summary.
Remember to sort your data
• 3310,3450, 3355, 3480,3520, 3490, 3480, 3550, 3540, 3925, 3730, 3650
• 3310,3355,3450,3480,3480,3490,3520,3540,3550,3650,3730,3925
Min = 3310 q1 = 3450 q3 = 3550
Max = 3925 q2 = 3505