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What Is The Central Tendency Formula

Central tendency refers to the central or typical value of a data set and is represented by the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of values. The median is the middle value when data is arranged in order, and its position is determined by a formula. The mode is the value that occurs most frequently in categorical and grouped data sets. Understanding central tendency is important for summarizing and comparing data in fields like statistics, economics, and research.

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93 views18 pages

What Is The Central Tendency Formula

Central tendency refers to the central or typical value of a data set and is represented by the mean, median, and mode. The mean is the average and is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of values. The median is the middle value when data is arranged in order, and its position is determined by a formula. The mode is the value that occurs most frequently in categorical and grouped data sets. Understanding central tendency is important for summarizing and comparing data in fields like statistics, economics, and research.

Uploaded by

Carel Faith Andres
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is the Central Tendency Formula?

Central Tendency is the single value that describes the full

data set given by finding the central spot of that data set

itself. This is often considered as the summary of the statistics

or Statically Average since Functionally, it is the simple

mathematical value which represents the whole data set. In

statistics, three measures are considered as Central Location

identifying measures. They are Mean which nothing but the

average, Median and Mode. This cannot be used on any data

set type rather it has a certain condition to be used on the

particular type of data set. For the unsymmetrical Data

distribution, the median can be used. The mode can be used

for most categorical data set. However, it always pushes to

have more than one value with high frequency as Central


Tendency which leads to more confusion. For a normal

symmetrical Data set, mean is the measure used. However

Symmetrical continuous data set has the same value for the

Central Tendency no matter it is Mean, Mode, and Median.

There is data type such as normally distributed symmetrical

Continuous data, discrete data set, categorical data set,

irregular unsymmetrical data, etc.

1. Arithmetic Mean can be calculated using the following

formula.

Arithmetic Mean = ∑x / N

2. Median can be calculated using the following formula.

Median = (n + 1) / 2

3. Mode is the value which occurs more often in the data

set.
Examples of Central Tendency Formula (With
Excel Template)
Let’s take an example to understand the calculation of Central

Tendency in a better manner.

You can download this Central Tendency Formula Excel Template here – Central
Tendency Formula Excel Template

Central Tendency Formula – Example #1


Consider the following Continuous symmetrical normal

distributed data set. Calculate the Central Tendency for

this.
Solution:

Arithmetic Mean is calculated using the formula given below

Arithmetic Mean = ∑x / N
 Arithmetic Mean = (5 + 2 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 98 + 1009 + 45

+ 34 + 5 + 6 + 56 + 89 + 23) / 14

 Arithmetic Mean = 99.286

Median is calculated using the formula given below


Median = (n + 1) / 2

 Median = (14 + 1) / 2

 Median = 7.5

Mode is calculated using the excel formula


 Mode = 5

Central Tendency Formula – Example #2


Consider the small data set A= 42, 21, 34, 65, 90, 45,

109. Calculate the Central Tendency for this.


Solution:

Arrange the data set in ascending order.


Arithmetic Mean is calculated using the formula given below

Arithmetic Mean = ∑x / N

 Arithmetic Mean = (21 + 34 + 42 + 45 + 65 + 90 + 109) /

 Arithmetic Mean = 58


Median is calculated using the formula given below

Median = (n + 1) / 2

 Median = (7 + 1) / 2

 Median = 4

Mode is calculated using the excel formula


Since there is no repetative value in give dataset, it gives

result as a #N/A

Consider the large data set B = 1, 2, 3 …, 51.

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Here the total numbers are 51. So n= 51. So Median = 52 / 2

= 26. So the 26th number is the median value. So 25 numbers

should be below the median, 26th number is the median and

again 25 numbers are above.

Central Tendency Formula – Example #3


A shopkeeper wants to know the size of the shoes which

are sold more often than others. The following is the

shoes that are sold recently. 5, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 5, 5, 8.

Calculate mode using given information.


Mode is calculated using the excel formula
Here 5 is the frequently sold shoe size so Central Tendency is

5. Hence for categorical data, Mode is the measure to be

used. Only direct formulas are represented here. More

detailed calculations for different data type will be the

separate topic one can look at.

Explanation
Mean (Average) formula:

Step 1: x represents the values present in the data set. ∑x is

the Greek variable which represents the summation. Together

∑x is the summation value of all the value present in the data

set. Say for example, data set A = x1, x2, x3, x4. Here =

x1+x2+x3+x4. Note this value.

Step 2: N is the total number of values available in the data

set. If you take the above example, N= 4.

Step 3: Apply the values in the Mean formula.

Arithmetic Mean = ∑x / N

Median formula:
Step 1: Median is generally for the unsymmetrical data. n is

the total number of values available in the data set. If you take

the above example, N= 4.

Step 2: Apply the values in the Median formula.

Median = (n + 1) / 2

The value which we get from the above calculation is the

position of data where the Median is. However, this is

applicable to the data set when total numbers of data in the

given set are odd. For the data which has even number of

data in that, it is slightly different. We will check this in the

example.

Relevance and Uses of Central Tendency


Formula
Among these 3 central Tendency formula, Mean is the widely

used one since its primary usage of summarising the data and

comparing it with other multiple sets of data. It is mostly used

stable measure in economic and social studies for statistical

calculations. The Median value is a statistical measure used in

many real-life scenarios like real estate median price,

bankruptcy value, etc. This is very useful when the data set

include very high and low values of grouped and ungrouped

data sets. Median is simply the point where 50% of the

numbers above & 50% of the numbers below. It is an

instinctive centrality that denotes the middle value. This value

is very useful in case of a historic data set or data set that

comes over time. A mode is used in finding particular with

respect to its sizes. For Example, cloth manufacture wants to


go with more number of pieces which is of more sale from his

production. Say XS, S, M, L, XL are the size of dresses that are

produced. But XL and L are the most used dress sizes out of

his production. So in this case, a mode is very useful.

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