Describing data- numerical

measures
 Objectives
• By the end of the lecture the students will be
able to compute and interpret
• The mean, median and mode
• Percentiles and quartiles
 Central location
 Central Location refers to the most representative
value of all the data values and is generally a middle
value to represent where the majority of the data
values are concentrated
 Central location statistic- a single number that gives
a sense of the concentration of data values in a
sample
 Commonly used central location statistics are;
 Arithmetic mean
 Mode/modal value
 Median
 Arithmetic mean
• The arithmetic mean of a set of data is the
sum of the data values divided by the number
of observations
x  x2  .......  xn 1 N
population mean   1
N

N
x
i 1
i

x1  x2  .......  xn 1 n
sample mean x    xi or
n n i 1
1 n
x   f i xi
n i 1
 Arithmetic mean- example
• An economist wishes to study the distribution
of household incomes in Senga and randomly
selects a sample of 26 households and
determines last year’s income for each
household. The resulting sample of 26
household incomes ($00) is as follows;
20 10 15 12 11 14 7 8 9 6 4 3 2
19 17 1 3 5 8 4 16 18 19 5 15 5
 Arithmetic mean- example
n

x i
25600
x i 1
  984.6154  984.62
n 26

• Therefore the average household income in

Senga is $984.62
 Advantages and disadvantages of arithmetic
mean
• Advantages of arithmetic means
 It uses all the data values in its calculations
 It is an unbiased statistical measure, because the sum of the differences
between each data point and the mean always equals zero. This means that,
on average, the mean neither over estimates nor underestimates the actual
central value
 The arithmetic mean is least affected by fluctuations in the sample size
• Disadvantages
 The mean is valid only for numeric variables of interval-scaled or ratio-scaled
data. Meaningless to compute and interpret an average for categorical data
 The mean is distorted by outliers
 Cannot be calculated for data set that has open ended classes at either high
or low end of the scale
 Median
• The median is the midpoint of a distribution. It
divides a population/sample into two roughly
equal parts. The median is calculated as
follows;
 Arrange the measurements in ascending order
 Find the
n  1  middlemost measurement in the ordering, i.e.
th


 2 
the ordered position (if the number of
measurement is odd)
 Find the average of the two middlemost measurement
in the ordering (if the number of measurement is even)
 Median-example
• Example 1:
• Find the median of the following household incomes;
200 1300 500 750 890 350 270

• Arrange the household incomes in ascending order as follows

200 270 350 500 750 890 1300
• The median is $500
• Example 2:
• Find the median of the following household incomes
200 270 350 500 750 890 1300 1350
• The median is (500+750)/2 =$625
 Mode
• The mode is the most frequently occurring
value in a sample of n data values (Wegner,
2009, p.97)
• To compute the mode
 Group the data values into either a categorical
frequency table or a numerical frequency table
 Identify the modal category/modal interval
• To determine the modal value within the modal
interval use the following formula;
 Quartiles
• Quartiles divide an ordered data set into quarters
• Lower quartile (Q1)
 Identifies the data value below which the lower 25% of the
ordered data values fall
• Middle quartile (Q2)
 Identifies that data value which separates the lower 50% of
data values from the upper 50% of data values in an ordered
sample
• Upper quartile (Q3)
 Identifies the data value above which the top 25% of the ordered data
values lie
 Percentiles
• A percentile is a data value below which a
specified percentage of data values in an
ordered data set will fall.
• Quartiles/percentiles for ungrouped data
 Sort the data in ascending/descending order
 Identify the quartile/percentile position as follows
 First quartile/ 25th percentile = (n+1)*0.25th position
 Second quartile/ 50th percentile = (n+1)*0.50th position
 Upper quartile/75th percentile = (n+1)*0.75th position