Measures of Variability

A measure of variability is a summary statistic

that represents the amount of dispersion in a
dataset. While a measure of central tendency
describes the typical value, measures of variability
define how far away the data points tend to fall from
the center.
 Examples:
Data set 40 38 42 40 39 39 43 40 39 40
1

Data set 46 37 40 33 42 36 40 47 34 45
2
Types of Measuring
Variability
  Range
Variance
Standard Deviation
Coefficient Variation
 Range
• Is the difference between the largest to the smallest
observation.
Formula:
Range = maximum - minimum

Examples :
45, 64, 68, 51
Range = 68 – 45
Range = 23
Examples:
• Sample Data Set 1
• 20, 21,22, 25, 26, 29, 33, 34, 38
• Range= 20 – 38
• Range = 18
• Sample Data Set 2
• 11, 16, 19, 23, 25, 32, 39, 46, 52
• Range= 52 – 11
• Range =41