Standard Deviation is a measure which shows how much variation (such as spread, dispersion,

spread,) from the mean exists. The standard deviation indicates a “typical” deviation from the
mean. It is denoted by σ.

Standard Deviation (σ) = √𝑉𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒

∑𝑛
𝑖=1(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )
2
Where, Variance (σ2) = 𝑛

X indicates each value of the data

𝑥̅ shows the mean of all values
n is the total number of values
Standard deviation is very useful because it helps you to compare two dets effectively. It helps
you to find out the deviation from the mean. It helps you to focus more on larger deviations by
ignoring smaller ones.

Calculating Standard Deviation

Example- There are 5 students in a class and their score out of 100 in Maths are 65,45,80,40,30
Step 1. Calculate Mean
∑𝑥
𝑥̅ = 𝑛

𝑥̅ = (65+45+80+40+30)/5
= 260/5
= 52
Step 2. Calculate Variance
For variance, we need to first subtract each value from the mean value
x x-𝑥̅ ( 𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )2
65 13 169
45 -7 49
80 28 784
40 -12 144
30 -22 484

σ2 = 1630/5
= 326
Step 3. Calculate Standard Deviation

σ = √326
= 18.055