Measures of Dispersion BIM 3rd Sem

Measures of Dispersion

Dispersion: - Literal meaning of dispersion is ‘scatteredness’ or ‘spread’ between

individual items in a set of data. It tells us, ‘how the variate values are deviated from
average value’.
Example: - Distribution of marks of three students A, B and C along with their
averages are given below.

Student/Subjects I II III IV V VI VII Mean Median Mode

A 0 25 50 50 50 75 100 50 50 50
B 48 49 50 50 50 51 52 50 50 50
C 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50

In the example above, all three students have same average marks but dispersion of
marks of each of the students is different. There is very high dispersion between the
marks secured by A and there is no dispersion between the marks secured by C
whereas the dispersion of marks of B lies between them.

Requisites of good measures of dispersion (same as requisites of good measures

of central tendency)
Absolute and Relative measures of dispersion: - Absolute measures of
dispersion carry original unit of measurement of data. They are used
measure/compare dispersion of two or more sets of data in same unit.
Relative measures of dispersion are free from original unit of measurement of data.
They are also called coefficient of dispersion based on absolute measure. Since they
are unit free numbers, they are widely used to measure/compare dispersion of two (or
more) sets of data.
Some measures of dispersion: -
1. Range and its coefficient

Range is
𝑅 =𝐿−𝑆
Where L = Largest item, S = Smallest item
and relative measure of dispersion based on range is
𝐿−𝑆
Coefficient of range =
𝐿+𝑆
2. Quartile deviation (QD)/ Semi-inter quartile range and its coefficient: -

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Measures of Dispersion BIM 3rd Sem

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𝑄𝐷 = (𝑄3 − 𝑄1 )
2
Where Q1 = First quartile, Q3 = Third quartile
And
𝑄3 − 𝑄1
𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑄𝐷 =
𝑄3 + 𝑄1
3. Standard deviation (SD), Variance (𝜎 2 ) and Coefficient of variation (CV): - It is
denoted by ‘𝜎’ (read as “sigma”) and defined as the positive square root of mean of
squares of deviations from mean.

i. Definition method

1 2
√ ∑(𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑
𝑛
𝑆𝐷 (𝜎) =
1 2
√ ∑ 𝑓(𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
{ 𝑁
ii. Direct method (simplification of above formula immediately gives)

2
∑ 𝑥2 ∑𝑥
√ −( ) 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑
𝑛 𝑛
𝑆𝐷 (𝜎) =
2
∑ 𝑓𝑥 2 ∑ 𝑓𝑥
√ −( ) 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
{ 𝑁 𝑁

iii. Coding (Change of origin and/or scale) method: - Let 𝐴 = 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛, ℎ =
𝑋−𝐴
𝑛𝑜𝑛 − 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 in values of variable 𝑋, define 𝑢 = then
ℎ

𝜎𝑥 = 𝜎𝑢 × ℎ
Or
2
∑ 𝑓𝑢2 ∑ 𝑓𝑢
𝑆𝐷 (𝜎𝑥 ) = √ −( ) ×ℎ
𝑁 𝑁

iv. Combined Standard deviation: - Let 𝑛1 , 𝑥̅1 , 𝜎1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛2 , 𝑥̅2 , 𝜎2 respectively denote
size, mean and SD of 1st and 2nd series of data. Then, the combined SD of both
the series taken at a time is denoted by 𝜎12 and it is given by

𝑛1 (𝜎12 + 𝑑12 ) + 𝑛2 (𝜎22 + 𝑑22 )

𝜎12 = √
𝑛1 + 𝑛2

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Measures of Dispersion BIM 3rd Sem

Were, 𝑑1 = 𝑥̅1 − 𝑥̅12

𝑛1 𝑥̅1 + 𝑛2 𝑥̅2
𝑑2 = 𝑥̅2 − 𝑥̅12 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥̅12 =
𝑛1 + 𝑛2
Variance: - The square of standard deviation is called variance and it is denoted by
“𝝈𝟐 ”

Coefficient of Variation (CV): -

𝜎
𝐶𝑉 = × 100%
𝑥̅
Interpretation of comparative values of two CVs: - If 𝐶𝑉1 > 𝐶𝑉2 , then we have one or both of
the following interpretations.
i. The first data series is more non-uniform/ heterogeneous/ inconsistent/ unstable/
variable than the second.

OR
ii. The second data series is more uniform/ homogeneous/ consistent/ stable/ equitable
than the first.

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