GROUP#04

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY OR

AVERAGES

SHEEZA SAKHAWAT
ROLL#19011514-023
Median
 MEDIAN

Median is the central value of the variable that divide the series into two equal parts
in such a way that half of the items lie above the value and the remaining half lie
below this value. Median is defined as the value of the middle item (or the mean of
the values of the two middle items) when the data are arranged in an ascending or
descending order of magnitude.
 EXAMPLE

 Mr. Frank wanted to compute the median of the 15 scores

from his class. After lining up the scores, Mr. Frank found
the middle number, which is the median of the scores:

42,42,44,44,44,45,46,46,46,47,48,48,49,49,50

46
MEDIAN OF GROUP AND
UNGROUP DATA
 GROUP AND UNGROUP DATA

Data is often described as ungrouped or grouped. 

Ungrouped data is data given as individual data points.
 Grouped data is data given in intervals. ... 
Ungrouped data without a frequency distribution.

No. of
Mileage Rating
Cars
Number of
passengers
travelling on a 30.0 – 32.9 2
bus at six
Different times 33.0 – 35.9 4
during the day
36.0 – 38.9 14
are
14,18,23,47,49.5 39.0 – 41.9 8
0.
42.0 – 44.9 2
MEDIAN OF UNGROUP DATA

In an ungrouped frequency distribution if the n values are arranged

in ascending or descending order of magnitude, the median is the
middle value if n is odd.
When n is even, the median is the mean of the two middle values.
 Example#01
Suppose we have the following series: 15, 19,21,7, 10,33,25,18 and 5

Solution
We have to first arrange it in either ascending or
descending order.
These figures are arranged in an ascending order as follows:
5,7,10,15,18,19,21,25,33
Now as the series consists of odd number of items, to find out the value of the middle item, we
use the formula

Where n is the number of items

 In this case, n is 9, as such

That is, the size of the 5th item is the median.

So median is 18
 Example#02

Suppose we have the following series:

15, 19,21,7, 10,33,25,18, 5 and 23
Solution
We have to first arrange it in either ascending or descending order. These figures
are arranged in an ascending order as follows:
5, 7, 10, 15, 18, 19, 21,23,25,33

Now as the series consists of even number of items, to find out the value of the
middle item, we use the formula

Where n is the number of items

In this case, n is 10, as such

.5
MEDIAN = 18.5
That is, the size of the 5.5th item is the median. We have to
take the average of the values of 5th and 6th item. This means an
average of 18 and 19, which gives the median as 18.5.
 Median of Group Data
In the case of a grouped series, the median is calculated with the help of the following
formula:

Where,
l= Lower class boundary of median class
c = Previous commutative frequency of median class
f = frequency of median class.
h = Size of the median class.
= total no of observation or the total of the frequency.
Example – From the following data, calculate median.
Marks 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60

No. of students 10 20 30 50 40 30

Solution-
Step I- First we will find out the commutative frequency
Marks(x) No. of students (f) Commutative
frequency C.f

0-10 10 10
10-20 20 30
20-30 30 60
30-40 50 110
40-50 40 150
50-60 30 180
N = 180
 Step II

Step III-
Commutative frequency which includes 90th= 110 Class corresponding to
110=30 – 40 (is the median class)
 Marks(x) No. of students Commutative
(f) frequency C.f

0-10 10 10
10-20 20 30 PCF
20-30 30 60
30-40 50 110 Median
Median Class
Class
40-50 40 150
50-60 30 180
N = 180

f
L
 Example: from the following data calculate median

Marks 45 55 25 35 5 15
No. of students 40 30 30 50 10 20
SOLUTION:
Step I- First we will find out the commutative frequency
Marks in No. of students (f) Commutative
ascending frequency
order (x) C.f
5 10 10
15 20 30
25 30 60
35 50 110 M.C
45 40 150
55 30 180
N = 180
 Step II –
Size of N + 1 Item = size of 181 item = 90.5th item
2 2

Step III-
Commutative frequency which includes 90.5th = 110
Median = size of item corresponding to 110=35
CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDIAN
 An ordinal statistics.
•• A A rank
rank or
or position
position average.
average.
•• Value
Value is
is the
the middlemost
middlemost score.
score.
•• Not
Not affected
affected by
by extreme
extreme
values.
values.

In case of the qualitative

data where the items are Can be subjected only to
few
not counted or
mathematical
measured but are scored
computations.
or ranked, it is the most
•• Less
Less widely
widely used
used than
than the
appropriate measure of the
mean.
mean.
central tendency.

Unlike the arithmetic

As it is not influenced by mean, the median can be
computed from open-
the extreme values, it is
ended distributions. This
preferred in case of a
is because it is located in
distribution having
the median class-interval,
extreme values.
which would not be an
open- ended class
EFFECT OF OUTILERS ON MEDIAN

Unlike the mean, extreme scores in the data set, called outliers,
have less of an eff ect on the median. When outliers are present,
the mean is “pulled” in the directi on of the outlier, meaning an
extremely high score would result in a higher mean than if the
outlier was not present. The median on the other hand, would
be less aff ected by the outlier, oft en resulti ng in litt le or no
change in the median.
The eff ect of outliers will be more apparent when examining
data graph s in the distributi on shape (skew) secti on.
 Example with Outliers :

42,42,44,44,44,45,46,46,46,47,48,48,49,49,50

Median = 46
Let ’s say though the next day three new students were added to Mr. Frank’s class. He
decided to test them too. Their scores, which he added to the total distributi on, were:
10, 11, and 46. Since two of the new scores appeared to be extremely diff erent than the
rest of the scores Mr. Frank wanted to recalculate the mean and median of his data. Now
the mean looked a litt le diff erent:

10,11,42,42,44,44,44,45,46,46,46,46,47,48,48,49,49,50
Mr. Frank also recalculated the median after adding the
new scores to the data set.

10,11,42,42,44,44,44,45,46,46,46,46,47,48,48,49,49,50
 Since there was an even number Mr. Frank added the two middle
numbers and divided by two:
 When to use the Median

When it is desired that certain

When the exact midpoint of the
distribution is wanted, 50% point.
scores should influence the central
When the extremes score which
tendency, but all that is known
would markedly affect the Mean.
about them is that they are above
or below the median.
MERITS AND DEMERITS OF
MEDIAN
 It is easy to
compute and
understand.

It
It can
can be
be It is well
calculated easily defined an
by watching the ideal average
data. should be.

It is not affected It can also be

computed in
MERITS
by extreme values
and
and also
also case of
interdependent
interdependent of of frequency
range or distribution
dispersion of the with open
data.
data. ended classes.

It can be In some cases

determined median gives
graphically.
graphically. better result
than mean
It
It is
is proper
proper
average for
qualitative data
where items are
not
not measured
measured butbut
are
are scored
scored
 For computing
median data needs
to be arranged in
ascending or
descending order.

It is affected by It is not based on all

fluctuation of the observations of
sampling. the data.

DEMERITS

It can not be given

It is not accurate further algebraic
when the data is not treatment.
large.