UNIT-IV MEASURES OF DISPERSIONS

Measures of Dispersion dispersed. We say that series B is more

homogeneous (or uniform) as compared with series
1. MEANING:- C or the series C is more heterogeneous than series
B.
“Dispersion is the measure of the variation of the
items.”—A.L. Bowley 2. Objectives or Significance of the
Measures of Dispersion
“Dispersion is a measure of the extent to which the
individual items vary.”—L.R. Connor I. To find out the reliability of an average.
II. To control the variation of the data from the
“Dispersion or spread is the degree of the scatter central value
or variation of the variables about a central III. To compare two or more sets of data regarding
value.” —B.C. Brooks and W.F.L . Dick their variability(Coefficient of Variation)
“The degree to which numerical data tend to spread
about an average value is called the variation or 3. CHARACTERISTICS FOR AN
dispersion of the data.”—Spiegel IDEAL MEASURE OF
DISPERSION:
Exp: Let us consider the following three series A, B
and C of 9 items each.
Series Total Mean I. It should be rigidly defined.
A 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15 135 15 II. It should be easy to calculate and easy to
B 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 135 15 understand.
C 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27 135 15 III. It should be based on all the observations.
IV. It should be amenable to further mathematical
treatment.
“An average does not tell the full story. It is hardly V. It should be affected as little as possible by
fully representative of a mass unless we know the fluctuations of sampling.
manner in which the individual items scatter around
it 4. MEASURES OF DISPERSION
The various measures of dispersion are :
measures of central tendency must be supported and (i) Range.
supplemented by some other measures. One such (ii) Quartile deviation or Semi-Interquartile
measure is Dispersion. range.
Literal meaning of dispersion is “Scatteredness.” (iii) Mean deviation.
(iv) Standard deviation AND Variance
We study dispersion to have an idea of the
homogeneity (compactness) or heterogeneity (i) Range.
(scatter) of the distribution. In the above illustration,
It is defined as the difference between the two
we say that the series A is stationary, i.e., it is extreme observations of the distribution. In other
constant and shows no variability. Series B is words, range is the difference between the greatest
slightly dispersed and series C is relatively more

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(maximum) and the smallest (minimum)
observation of the distribution Range = L – S = 8 – 8 = 0.

(a) Range = Xmax – Xmin Example1.

where Xmax = L, is the greatest observation and

Xmin = S, is the smallest observation of the variable
values
Note: In case of the grouped frequency distribution
(for discrete values) or the continuous frequency
distribution, range is defined as the difference
between the upper limit of the highest class and the
lower limit of the smallest class.

Example 2. The following table gives the age distribution

of a group of 50 individuals.
(b) Absolute and Relative Measures of Age (in years) : 16 – 20 21 – 25 26 – 30 31 – 36
Range No. of persons : 10 15 17 8
Calculate range and the coefficient of range.

Coefficient of Range =Xmax – Xmin /

Xmax + Xmin

coefficient of range is the ratio of the difference

between two extreme observations (the biggest and
the smallest) of the distribution to their sum.

Note: Range as defined as an absolute measure of

dispersion and depends upon the units of
measurement.we need a relative measure which is
independent of the units of measurement.

When is dispersion (variation) zero ?

Range = Largest sample observation – Smallest
sample observation.
Range = 0,

if Largest sample observation = Smallest sample

observation

For example, if a variable takes 5 values 8, 8, 8, 8,

8, then :
Largest value (L) = 8 and Smallest value (S) = 8

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(ii) Interquartile Range or Deviation
The interquartile range is a measure of dispersion or spread of values in the data set between the third quartile,
Q3, and the first quartile, Q1.

(a) Interquartile range (IQR) = Q3 – Q1.

Half the distance between Q1 and Q3 is called the semi-interquartile range or the quartile deviation (QD).

(b) Quartile Deviation (Q.D.) = (Q3 – Q1 )/ 2

Q.D. as defined as an absolute measure of dispersion.

For comparative studies of variability of two distributions we need a relative measure which is known as

(c ) Coefficient of Quartile Deviation and is given by :

Coefficient of Q.D. = (Q3 – Q1)/2 /(Q3 + Q1)/2
= Q3 – Q1 / Q3 + Q1

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(iii) MEAN DEVIATION OR Relative Measures of Mean

AVERAGE DEVIATION Deviation.
“Average deviation is the average amount of scatter The relative measure of
of the items in a distribution from either the mean or dispersion, called the coefficient of mean deviation is
the median, ignoring the signs of the deviations. given by :
The average that is taken of the scatter is an
arithmetic mean, which accounts for the fact that
this measure is often called the mean deviation.”

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Example 6·5. Calculate the mean deviation from mean for the following data.
Class Interval : 2—4 4—6 6—8 8—10
Frequency : 3 4 2 1

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3. Find (i) Inter-quartile range, (ii) Semi-inter-

(PRACTICE SET FOR STUDENTS) quartile range, and (iii) Coefficient of quartile
deviation, from the following frequency
1. Find the range and the coefficient of range for distribution :
Marks : 10—20 20—30 30—40 40—50 50—60 60—70 70—80 80—90
the following observations. No.
(a) 65, 70, 82, 59, 81, 76, 57, 60, 55 and 50. of
students : 60 45 120 25 90 80 120 60
[C.A. PEE-1, Nov. 2003]
Ans. 32 ; 0.2424 [C.A. (Foundation), Dec. 1993]
Ans. (i) 38·75, (ii) 19·375, (iii) 0·3647.
(b) From the monthly income of 10 families given
below, calculate (a) the median, (b) coefficient of 4. Calculate mean deviation about A.M. from the
range. following :
S. No. : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Value (x) : 10 11 12 13
Income in Rs. : 145 367 268 73 185 619 280 115 870 315 Frequency (f) : 3 12 18 12
Ans. A.M. = 11·87 ; M.D. = 0·71.
Ans. (a) Md = Rs. 274 (b) Coefficient of Range =
0·84.

2. Find the mode, median, lower quartile (Q1) and

upper quartile (Q3) and Coeff. of Q.D. from the
following data :
Wages : 0—10 10—20 20—30 30—40 40—50
No. of workers : 22 38 46 3 5 20
[Maharishi Dayanand Univ. B.Com., 1997]

Ans. Mode = 24·21 : Median = 24·46, Q1 = 14·803,

Q3 = 24·21 ; Coeff. of Q.D. = 0·396.

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(IV) STANDARD DEVIATION

Standard deviation, usually denoted by the letter σ (small sigma) of the Greek alphabet was first suggested by
Karl Pearson as a measure of dispersion in 1893. It is defined as the positive square root of the arithmetic mean
of the squares of the deviations of the given observations from their arithmetic mean. Thus if X1, X2,…, Xn is a
set of n observations then its standard deviation is given by :

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(IV) COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION

Standard deviation is only an absolute measure of dispersion, depending upon the units of measurement. The
relative measure of dispersion based on standard deviation is called the coefficient of standard deviation and is
given by :

100 times the coefficient of dispersion based on standard deviation is called the coefficient of variation,
abbreviated as C.V. Thus,

“coefficient of variation is the percentage variation in mean, standard deviation being considered as the total
variation in the mean”

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Example 6·31. Comment on the following :

For a set of 10 observations : mean = 5, s.d. = 2 and C.V. = 60%.

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PRACTICE SET

1. The arithmetic means of runs secured by the three

batsmen, X, Y and Z in a series of 10 innings are 50,
48 and 12 respectively. The standard deviations of
their runs are 15, 12 and 2 respectively. Who is the
most consistent of the three ?
Ans. C.V. (X) = 30 ; C.V. (Y) = 25 ; C.V. (Z) =
16·67. Batsman Z is the most consistent.

2. (a)Coefficients of variation of two series are 60%

and 80%. Their standard deviations are 20 and 16
respectively. What are their arithmetic means ?
(b) Coefficients of variation of two series are 60%
and 80%. Their standard deviations are 24 and 20 6.
respectively. What are their arithmetic means ?
[Delhi Univ. B.Com. (Pass), 1997]
Ans. (a) 33·3, 20; (b) 40, 25.
3. The means and standard deviations of two brands
of light bulbs are given below :
Brand 1 Brand 2
Mean 800 hours 770 hours
S.D. 100 hours 60 hours
Calculate a measure of relative dispersions for the
two brands and interpret the results.
[Delhi Univ. B.Com. (Hons.), 2000]
Ans. C.V. (I) = 12·5; C.V. (II) = 7·79 ; Brand II is
more uniform.
4& 5.

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