Measures of

Dispersion
• Range
• Interquartile Range
• Variance
• Standard Deviation
• Absolute Deviation
Measure of dispersion which includes range,
interquartile range, absolute deviation, variance and
standard deviation is also known as the measure of
spread or measure of variability. It measures how the
various elements behave with regards to central
tendency.
Range
-This is the easiest measure of dispersion. It is the difference between the highest value and
the lowest value. It tells how far the lowest value from the highest value is. It is denoted by R.

Example 1:
Given the data set {5, 8, 7, 12, 12, 13, 18}
R = 18 -5
= 13
The value 13 tells that the HV and LV is 13 steps away from each other. Also, with the
distance 13 all the values of the sample is contained.

Example 2:
Given the data set {8, 11, 13, 7, 2, 15, 17}
R = 17 -2
= 15
Interquartile Range
-This is also called the midspread. It is the difference between the 75th and the 25th percentile
or between upper and lower quartile.

–It is  denoted by IQR and computed as

IQR =
Example:
Given {4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15}
Solution:

Identify which of the given is the 3rd and 1st quartile

Given {4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15}

𝑄
  1 𝑄2
  𝑄3
 

 
IQR =
IQR = 11 – 5
IQR = 6
Variance
-This is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its mean.
It measures how far a set of numbers are spread out from their average value.

–To  determine the variance of ungrouped data:

1. Arrange the data from highest to lowest

2. Calculate the mean and the deviations of each item from the
mean.
3. Use the formula:
Example:
–Consider
  the following scores of students in an achievement exam

(15, 19, 11, 13, 17,10, 20)

x x-
10 10 – 15 = -5 = 25
11 11 – 15= -4 16
13 13 – 15 = -2 4
15 15 – 15 = 0 0
17 17 – 15 = 2 4
19 19 – 15 = 4 16
20 20 – 15 = 5 = 25
2
n=7
= 15
∑ (𝑥−´𝑥 ) =90
 
 Computation:
Standard Deviation
-this is the square root of its variance. A low standard deviation indicates that the data set tend to
be close to the mean. A high standard deviation indicates that the spread of data points is of wider
range.

–Example:
 

Consider the example in variance when:

s=
s = 3.87
Absolute Deviation
-This is the average of the absolute deviation from the central point or the average of the
average distance between each data value and the mean.

–To  find the absolute deviation:

1. Arrange the values from highest to lowest.

2. Compute the mean and the absolute deviation of each value
from the mean.
3. Compute using: AD =
 
Example:
Consider the number of blender unit sold by a store for one week

(5, 7, 2, 8, 9, 6, 12)

2 =5
5 =2
6 =1
7 =0
8 =1
9 =2
12 =5

n = 17
=7
 
Computation:
AD =
AD =
AD = 2.29