Topic: MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Hafsa Khan
Roll no: 16th
Semester: 1st

Dept. (linguistics) English

A measure of central tendency (also referred to as measures of centre or central location) is
a summary measure that attempts to describe a whole set of data with a single value that
represents the middle or centre of its distribution.

Average: A single numerical value which represents the whole data.

Types of measures of central tendency:

1. Arithmetic mean - The sum of All given observations divided by their number.
2. Geometric mean - The positive nth root of the product of positive non zero value.
3. Harmonic mean - The reciprocal of mean of reciprocal of given observations.
4. Mode - The most frequent value of given data set is called mode.
5. Median - A value which divide the arranged data into two equal parts.
1. Quartiles: Those quantities which divide the arranged data into some equal parts .
2. Deciles: Those quantities which divide the arranged data into 10 equal parts .
3. Percentiles: Those quantities which divide the arranged data into 100 equal parts .

Qualities of good Average:

 It should be easy to calculate.

 It should be easy to understand.
 It should be based on all the given observations.
 Observations which is not based on extremes values and extreme values have less effect on it
so its average is better than others.
 Average calculated from open end class.
 Merits & Demerits

Arithmetic Mean

Merits
> Rigidly defined
> Based on all given observations.
> Suitable for quantitative data
> Suitable for symmetrical data
Demerits
> Cannot be calculated from open end
classes.
> Not suitable for skewed data.
> Affected by extreme values
 Geometric Mean

Merits Demerits
> Rigidly defined > It becomes imaginary if any value of
> Based on all given observations given data is negative.
> Less affected by extreme values as > We have 0 value so its square root and
compared to arithmetic mean product will also be zero and will not
represent the data set.
> Suitable for quantitative data especially
for range and ratio
> If we want to talk about increase or
decrease in a percentage so geometric
mean is suitable
 Harmonic Mean
Merits Demerits
> . rigidly defined > Cannot be calculated from open
end class
> Suitable for quantitative data and
suitable for rates and ratios > It is not suitable for qualitative dat
> Less affected by extreme values. > Gives less importance to larger values
and more to smaller values

Mode
Merits Demerits
> Most Suitable average for qualitative > Not Rigidly defined
data
> Not based on all given observations
> Can be calculated from open end class
> Affected by extreme values
 Median

Merits Demerits
> Can be calculated from open end class. > Based on all the values.
> Suitable for qualitative and quantitative > For ungrouped data it is important to
data. arrange the data.
> Not affected by extreme values.
> Easy to understand.

 Suitable Conditions
 Relations between Arithmetic mean, median & mode.