MEASURES OF DISPERSION

The measures of dispersion or variability namely: range, mean deviation,

standard deviation and variance are another type of measure that will help us know
more about the data of a certain group.

The measure of dispersion describe how far apart the observations are. They
identify whether the group of data is homogeneous or heterogeneous.

A measure of dispersion indicates the degree of spread or

variability of a given set of data.

RANGE

The range is the difference between the highest and the lowest
values in a set of observations.

It is a measure of the full distance along the number scale over which the values
vary. If H represents the highest value and L the lowest value, then the range R is

R=H–L

There are two types of range which depend on whether the data are discrete or
continuous.

If the data are discrete (counting numbers), then the range is the inclusive range
Ri.

The inclusive range Ri is the difference between the highest value

H and the lowest value L, and is used for discrete data.

Ri = H – L

Examples of this type of data are scores in a test and the number of students.

If the data is continuous (with decimals), the exclusive range Re is used,

The exclusive range Re is the difference between the upper limit of

the highest observation Hu and the lower limit of the lowest observation Ll,
and is used with continuous data.

Re = Hu – Ll
 Height and weight measurements of students are examples of this type of data.
Re is also used in getting the range of a frequency distribution.

The range, as a measure of dispersion, does not provide any information on the
individual observations. It only gives information on the two extreme values. This is its
main limitation. It does not give an accurate picture of the variability of the distribution.

In addition, since the value of the range is dependent on the values of the two
extreme cases only, it is highly unstable measure. The addition or deletion of a single
extreme case may greatly change its value.

MEAN DEVIATION

The Mean Deviation (MD) is the mean of the absolute deviations

from the arithmetic mean.

∑ │xi - x̅│
i=1
MD = -------------
n

Where xi = variable data

x̅ = arithmetic mean
= absolute value taking the positive value of the given deviations
n = number of observations

The mean deviation is used in determining the extent of the differences or

variabilities among the members of a group. It is also an indicator of how compact the
group is on a certain measure.

As a measure of dispersion, the mean deviation is not widely used. Most

statisticians are not satisfied with using absolute values.

STANDARD DEVIATION
 The standard deviation s is the square root of the mean of the
squared deviations from the mean of a distribution. That is,

∑ (xi - x̅ ) 2
i=1
s = ---------------

√ n -1

Where
xi = variable data
x̅ = mean of the set of data

n = number of observations

The standard deviation is the most important measure of dispersion. It is affected

by the value of each observation. It is the most stable and is therefore, the most reliable
measure of variability. In fact the standard deviation together the variance is the only
measure of variability and used for statistical interferences like those involving
coefficients of correlation and standard scores.

VARIANCE

n the standard deviation. That is

The variance s2 is the square of

∑ (xi - x̅ ) 2
i=1
s =
2
---------------
n -1
 Above, is the definitional formula for the variance. The computational formula can
be derived from the definitional formula in which the value of the mean is not necessary.

n n

n ∑ (xi ) 2
- (∑ xi ) 2

i=1 i=1

s2 = --------------------------------
n (n – 1)