Descriptive Statistics

for one variable

Statistics has two major chapters:

• Descriptive Statistics

• Inferential statistics
 Statistics

Descriptive Statistics
• Gives numerical and
graphic procedures to Inferential Statistics
summarize a collection • Provides procedures
of data in a clear and to draw inferences
understandable way about a population
from a sample
 Descriptive Measures
• Central Tendency measures. They are
computed to give a “center” around which the
measurements in the data are distributed.

• Variation or Variability measures. They

describe “data spread” or how far away the
measurements are from the center.

• Relative Standing measures. They describe

the relative position of specific measurements in the
data.
Measures of Central Tendency

• Mean:
Sum of all measurements divided by the number of
measurements.

• Median:
A number such that at most half of the
measurements are below it and at most half of the
measurements are above it.

• Mode:
The most frequent measurement in the data.
 Example of Mean

Measurements Deviation
x x - mean
• MEAN = 40/10 = 4
3 -1
5 1
• Notice that the sum of the
5 1
1 -3
“deviations” is 0.
7 3
2 -2
6 2
• Notice that every single
7 3 observation intervenes in
0 -4 the computation of the
4 0 mean.
40 0
 Example of Median
Measurements Measurements
Ranked
• Median: (4+5)/2 =
x x
4.5
3 0
5 1
• Notice that only the
5 2
two central values are
1 3
7 4
used in the
2 5
computation.
6 5
7 6
• The median is not
0 7
sensible to extreme
4 7
values
40 40
 Example of Mode
Measurements

x
3
5
• In this case the data have
5 tow modes:
1 • 5 and 7
7
2 • Both measurements are
6 repeated twice
7
0
4
 Example of Mode
Measurements
x
3
• Mode: 3
5
1
1
4
• Notice that it is possible for a
7
data not to have any mode.
3
8
3
 Variance (for a sample)

• Steps:
– Compute each deviation
– Square each deviation
– Sum all the squares
– Divide by the data size (sample size) minus
one: n-1
 Example of Variance

Measurements Deviations Square of • Variance = 54/9 = 6

deviations
x x - mean
3 -1 1 • It is a measure of
5 1 1
5 1 1
“spread”.
1 -3 9 • Notice that the larger
7 3 9
the deviations (positive
2 -2 4
6 2 4 or negative) the larger
7 3 9 the variance
0 -4 16
4 0 0
40 0 54
 The standard deviation

• It is defines as the square root of the

variance
• In the previous example
• Variance = 6
• Standard deviation = Square root of the
variance = Square root of 6 = 2.45
 Percentiles

• The p-the percentile is a number such that at most p%

of the measurements are below it and at most 100 – p
percent of the data are above it.
• Example, if in a certain data the 85th percentile is 340
means that 15% of the measurements in the data are
above 340. It also means that 85% of the
measurements are below 340

• Notice that the median is the 50th percentile

 Further Notes

• When the Mean is greater than the Median the

data distribution is skewed to the Right.

• When the Median is greater than the Mean the

data distribution is skewed to the Left.

• When Mean and Median are very close to each

other the data distribution is approximately
symmetric.