MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Central tendency is the tendency of observations to cluster near the central part of the
distribution.
They are also termed as measures of location or averages. They include;
i. Mean
ii. Mode
iii. Median
iv. Percentiles
v. Deciles
vi. Quartiles

Properties of a good measure of central tendency

 It should be precisely defined
 It should be based on all observations made
 It should be easy to compute
 It should not be affected by extreme values
 Capable of further algebraic or statistical treatment
 It should be stable i.e should not be greatly affected by fluctuations of sampling

MEAN
Mean is defined as the value each item in the distribution would have if all the values were
shared out equally among all items. There are 3 types of mean:
(a) Arithmetic mean or simple average
(b) Geometric mean
(c) Harmonic mean

THE ARITHMETIC MEAN

It is obtained by summing up the values of all the items of a series and dividing this sum by the
number of items.
Case 1: Individual series;

X=
∑X
n where X = arithmetic mean , n = number of items

Indirect method
∑ Dx
X =P. M .+
n where P . M = provisional mean, Dx = Deviations from P.M, ∑
Dx =
the sum of deviations from P.M
Example 1; If the wages paid to four employees of a firm on a certain day were Rs 3,5,7, and 9
respectively. Find the mean wage.
 X=
∑X
Solution; n =
Example 2: The following table gives the daily income of 10 operators in a machine tool factory.
Find the arithmetic mean.
Name of operator: A B C D E F F H I J
Income: 12 15 18 20 25 30 22 35 37 26

Solution;
12+ 15+18+20+25+30+ 22+ 35+37+26 240
= =24
10 10

Example 3: If a firm received orders worth ksh.151, ksh.52 and ks.280 for 3 consecutive months,
find the mean average value of orders per month.

Solution;

Grouped series
Direct method

X=
∑ xf
n Where f = frequencies, n = number of items

Indirect method

Case II: Ungrouped frequency distribution

If the data is given in ungrouped frequency distribution with ‘n’ distinct observations
with respective frequencies ie
X f
X1 f1
X2 f2
X3 f3
X4 f4
. .
. .

xn fn

Then, = =
Example 1; Given below is ungrouped frequency distribution, find its mean
X f
2.0 2
2.2 4
2.3 6
2.8 3
3.0 5

Solution;

50
20
X f X1f1 = = = 2.5
2.0 2 4.0
2.2 4 8.8
2.3 6 13.8
2.8 3 8.4
3.0 5 15

Example 2: Calculate the mean of the marks of 46 students given below;

X f Xf
9 1 9
10 2 20
11 3 33
12 6 72
13 10 130
14 11 154
15 7 105
16 3 48
17 2 34
18 1 18

Solution;

623
46
= = = 13.54

Scenario 2; using assumed mean

Let our assumed mean (A) be 13

25
X f (x-A) f(x-A) =13+ 46
=13.54
9 1 -4 -4
10 2 -3 -6
11 3 -2 -6
12 6 -1 -6
13 10 0 0
14 11 1 11
15 7 2 14
16 3 3 9
17 2 4 8
18 1 5 5

Case III: Grouped frequency distribution

Here, the value of X is taken as the class mark or the mid-point of the corresponding class.
Example:
50 candidates entering a certain training program were given a psychological profile test. The
frequency distribution below gives their scores;
Class interval frequency
60-79 8
80-89 16
100-119 12
120-139 8
140-159 6
Find their mean score.

Solution;
Class interval frequency mid-point x fixi
60-79 8 69.5 556
80-89 16 89.5 1432
100-119 12 109.5 1314
120-139 8 129.5 1036
140-159 6 149.5 897

5235
50
= = 104.7

Advantages of the arithmetic mean

 Can be easily understood
 Takes into account all the items of the series
 It is not necessary to arrange the data before calculating the average
 It is capable of algebraic treatment
 It is a good method of comparison
 It is not indefinite
 It is used frequently.
Disadvantages of the arithmetic mean
  It is affected by extreme values to a great extent
 It may be a figure that does not exist in a series
 It cannot be calculated if all the items of a series are not known
 It cannot be used in case of qualitative data

GEOMETRIC MEAN
This is the nth root of the product of items of a series.
Case 1: Example 1;Calculate the geometric mean of the price increase of a
particular commodity from 1995 to 1997 by 7%, 10% and 19% respectively.

G.M= = =10.997
Example 2: Find the geometric mean of 4, 8 and 16
Case 2: Grouped data
∑ fLogx
G.M = Antilog of n Compute the G.M of the following data;
Weight (kgs):115.5 125.5 135.5 145.5 155.5 165.5
No. of students: 4 10 14 53 7 12
Solution; G.M =Antilog of 2.137842 = 143.9
Example 2: Using logarithims, find the geometric mean of 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24.
Solution
X log
5.4697
2 0.3010 G.M= Antilog =antilog 0.9116=8.158
6
4 0.6021
8 0.9031
12 1.0792
16 1.2041
24 1.3802
Example 3;
Marks f
0-10 3
10-20 7
20-30 8
30-40 15
40-50 15
Solution;
Marks f midpoint x log x flogx
0-10 3 5 0.699 2.097
10-20 7 15 1.176 8.232
20-30 8 25 1.398 11.184
30-40 15 35 1.544 23.16
 40-50 15 45 1.653 24.798
∑ fLogx 69.471
G.M. = Antilog of n =antilog of 48 = antilog of 1.4473=28.01

HARMONIC MEAN
Harmonic mean is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the values of the
values of items in a given series.
Case 1: For uungrouped data;
n
1
∑ x
H.M =
Example 1; If a man travels 200km each on three days at speeds of 60, 50 and 40 km ph
respectively, find his average speed.

The harmonic mean will be given by; =48.65 km ph

Example 2: Given the following data, find the H.M.
X: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
F: 2 5 9 14 15 8 6 3 1

Solution;

X f
3 2 0.67
4 5 1.25
5 9 1.8
6 14 2.33
7 15 2.14
8 8 1
9 6 0.67
10 3 0.3
11 1 0.09

63
= 10.25 n=63 H.M. = 10.25 = 6.146

Example 3: Compute Harmonic mean of the following dat;

Marks: 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100
Frequency: 20 25 36 72 51 40
Solution: X F
45 20 0.44

55 25 0.45

65 36 0.55

75 72 0.96

85 51 0.60

95 40 0.42

244
=3.412 n=244 H.M= 3.42 = 71.34

MODE
The mode is the value, which occurs most often or most frequently in a set of observations. I n
the case of ungrouped frequency, mode is the value of the variable corresponding to maximum
frequency.

Example 1; Consider the data below;

X: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

F: 3 1 18 25 40 30 22 10 6

Mode= 5 corresponding to the highest frequency of 40.

For grouped frequency distribution, mode is obtained by the interpolation formula;

f2
Mode =L+ ∗i
f 1+ f 2 where;

L= Lower class boundary of the modal class

i= Size of the class interval
f 0 = Frequency of the class preceding the modal class
f 1= Frequency of the modal class
f 2= Frequency of the class succeeding the modal class
Modal class corresponds to the class with the highest frequency.
Example2;
Calculate the mode from the following data;
Marks No. of students
0-10 2
10-20 7
20-30 11
30-40 6
40-50 4
Solution; Modal class is 20-30 corresponding to the highest frequency of 11. Where, f 1= 11

f 0= 7 f 2= 6. Therefore, replacing in the formula we have:

= 20 + = 24.44

Advantages of the Mode

 It is easy to understand
 Extreme items do not affect its value
 It possesses the merit of simplicity
Disadvantages of the Mode
 It is often not clearly defined
 Exact location is often uncertain
 It is unsuitable for further algebraic treatment
 It does not take into account extreme values.

MEDIAN
The median is the middle value of a series arranged in ascending or descending order. If the

( )
th
n+1
number of observationsn is an odd number, the median is the value of the 2 item. If n, is
n n
( )th ( +1 )th
an even number, the median value corresponds to the mean of 2 item and 2 item.
Example 1: Find the medians of the following two data sets;
(i) 31 38 34 39 35 32 37 30 41
(ii) 30 31 36 33 29 28 35 36
Solution: The first step is to arrange the data in ascending orders;
(i) 30 31 32 34 35 37 38 39 41

( )
th
n+1 9+1
n=9 which is odd, therefore, median= 2 =( 2 )=5th item =35
(ii) 28 29 30 31 33 35 36 36
+¿ ¿ 31+ 33
N=8 (even) hence; median= 2 = (4th +5th)÷ 2 = = 32
2
Case II: Example 2: Given the following data set, find the median;
45 53 45 50 48 53
Solution; Arrange in ascending order; 45 45 48 50 53 53

+¿ ¿ 48+50
÷ 2=
N=6, hence Median=
2 = (3 rd+ 4 th) 2
=49

Example 3: Given below are marks of 140 candidates in a certain examination. Find the median score.
X: 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
F: 7 15 18 25 30 20 16 7 2
To locate the median, requires the cumulative frequencies. (c. f)
CF: 7 22 40 65 95 115 121 138 140
n
n=∑ f =¿ ¿140 therefore median= th item. = 70th item =50 (to get median get the higher c.f. from the
2
median term).

Case III: Median value for grouped frequency distribution

Md=
where L = Lower class boundary of the median group
i = class interval of the median group
f = frequency of the median group

m
(
= middle item 2
n+1
) NB// add one if n is odd
cf= cumulative frequency of the group preceding the median group.
Example 1: Find the median from the following table;

Marks No. of students c.f

0-10 2 2
10-20 18 20
20-30 30 50
30-40 45 95
40-50 35 130
50-60 20 150
60-70 6 156
70-80 3 159
Since n is odd then the middle value is ( 159+1
2 )
th item=80 th
item, we take the c.f. above ths
which is 95 and lies in the class of 30-40. Hence;
Median=

Exercise: Calculate the median from the following grouped frequency distribution;
C.I F
90-99 5
100-109 8
110-119 22
120-129 27
130-139 17
140-149 9
150-159 5
160-169 5
170-179 2
PERCENTILE AND DECILE

Percentile
The Nth percentile of an array is the value of the item such that N percent items lie below it.
Then, the Nth percentile Pn of grouped data is given by;

where n-total frequencies

N- percentage
c.f- c.f preceding percentile class
Decile

Example 1:
Class interval C.F F
0- 5 29 29
5-10 224 195
10-15 465 241
15-20 582 117
20-25 634 52
25-30 644 10
30-35 650 6
35-40 653 3
40-45 655 2
Calculate;
a) 90th percentile
b) 20th percentile
 c) 5th decile
Solution;
nN 90× 655
a) P90 is in the position = =589.5 n=90 N=655 C.F=582 i=5
100 100
f=52

P90 =20+ =20.7

nN 5× 655
b) 5th decile; D5 is in the position = =327.5 lies in 10-15class n=655 N=5
10 10
c.f=224 f=241 L=10

D5= 10+ = 12.15

Example 2: Given the following;

Marks Frequency C.F
0-10 4 4
10-20 6 10
20-30 20 30
30-40 10 40
40-50 7 47
50-60 3 50
Find; a) P40 b) D8
n 40 ×50
Solution; a) P40 is given by 40( )= =20 which lies in the class 20-30
100 100

P40=20+