Measures of dispersion

Measures of dispersion: The measures of central tendency are not adequate to describe data. Two data
sets can have the same mean but they can be entirely different. Thus to describe data, one needs to
know the extent of variability. This is given by the measures of dispersion. Dispersion means the
scatteredness of data from central value. Another way of examining single variable data is to look at
how the data is spread out, or dispersed about the mean.

Consider two sets of data to understand dispersion:

X1: 23, 24, 25, 26, 27; n1=5; mean= 25

X2: 5, 10, 16, 28, 66; n2=5; mean= 25

We easily observe that the mean for both the data is 25. But the sets are not identical as the variates
are either scattered widely or closely packed.

There are two types measure of dispersion:

a) Absolute measures of dispersion: When dispersion is measured in original units, then it is

known as absolute dispersion. Measures are
i) Range
ii) Quartile deviation
iii) Mean deviation
iv) Standard deviation
b) Relative measures of dispersion: A relative measure of dispersion is independent of original
units. Measures are
i) Coefficient of range
ii) Coefficient of quartile deviation
iii) Coefficient of mean deviation
iv) Coefficient of variation(C.V)

i) Range: The range is the difference between the largest and the smallest observation in the
data.

Let, a data set is as X1, X2,………..,Xn. Then,

Range, R = 𝑿(𝒏) − 𝑿(𝟏) = largest observation - smallest observation

Example: Teacher took 7 math tests in one marking period. What is the range of her test
scores?
X: 89, 73, 84, 91, 87, 77, 94

Solution: Ordering the test scores from least to greatest, we get:

X: 73, 77, 84, 87, 89, 91, 94
Range, R= largest - smallest = 94 - 73 = 21

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Example: A frequency distribution is given as,
Class Interval 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 Total
Frequency 5 8 15 19 11 7 65

Calculate the value of range.

Solution: Range, 𝑹 = 𝑿(𝒏) − 𝑿(𝟏) = 40-10=30 𝑋( ) = Upper limit of last class
𝑋( ) = 𝐿𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠

ii) Quartile deviation: A measure similar to the above measure is the inter-quartile range (Q).
It is the difference between third quartile (Q3) and first quartile (Q1), Thus
𝑄 =𝑄 −𝑄 .
The inter-quartile range is frequently reduced to the measure of semi inter-quartile range,
Also known as quartile deviation (QD), by dividing it by 2. Thus
𝑄𝐷 = .

Mean deviation: The mean deviation or average deviation is the arithmetic mean of the absolute
deviations from mean and is denoted by 𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ).

Mean Deviation for ungrouped data,

| ̅| | ̅| ⋯ | ̅|
Mean deviation, 𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ) =

∑𝑛
𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ) = 𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 −𝑥
𝑛

Example: Calculate the mean deviation of the following distribution.

X: 9, 3, 8, 8, 9, 8, 9, 18

Mean Deviation for frequency distribution,

If the data is grouped in a frequency table, the expression of the mean deviation is:

| ̅| | ̅| ⋯ | ̅|
Mean deviation, 𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ) =

2
 ∑ 𝑓 |𝑥 − 𝑥̅ |
𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ) =
𝑛
Example: Calculate the mean deviation of the following distribution:

Class Frequency,
Interval fi

10-15 3

15-20 5

20-25 7

25-30 4

30-35 2

Total 21

Solution:

Class Interval 𝑥 𝑓 𝑥 𝑓 |𝑥 − 𝑥̅ | 𝑓 |𝑥 − 𝑥̅ |
10-15 12.5 3 37.5 9.286 27.858

15-20 17.5 5 87.5 4.286 21.43

20-25 22.5 7 157.5 0.714 4.998

25-30 27.5 4 110 5.714 22.856

30-35 32.5 2 65 10.714 21.428

Total 21 457.5 98.57

∑ 𝑓𝑥 457.5
𝑥̅ = = = 21.785
𝑛 21

∑𝑘
𝑖=1 𝑓𝑖 |𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥| 98.57
𝑀𝐷(𝑥̅ ) = = = 4.69
𝑛 21

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 iii) Standard deviation: The standard deviation is defined as the positive square root of the
mean of the square deviations taken from arithmetic mean of the data.

Variance and standard deviation for ungrouped data,

Variance Standard deviation

Population ∑ (𝑥 − 𝜇 )
𝜎 = ∑𝑁
𝑖=1(𝑥𝑖 − 𝜇)
2
𝑁 𝝈=
𝑁
= 𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒

Sample ∑ (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )
𝑠 = ∑𝑛𝑖=1(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥)2
𝑛−1 𝒔=
𝑛−1
= 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒

Variance and standard deviation for frequency distribution,

Sample variance,
∑ 𝑓 (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) 1 (∑ 𝑓 𝑥 )
𝑠 = = 𝑓𝑥 −
𝑛−1 𝑛−1 𝑛
Sample standard deviation,
∑ 𝑓 (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) 1 (∑ 𝑓 𝑥 )
𝑠= = 𝑓𝑥 −
𝑛−1 𝑛−1 𝑛

Coefficient of Variation:

The most important of all the relative measure of dispersion is the coefficient of variation. The
coefficient of variation (CV) is expressed as:

𝑠
𝐶𝑉 = × 100
𝑥̅

It is a pure number and the unit of observations is not mentioned with its value. It is written in
percentage form like 20% or 25%. When its value is 20%, it means that when the mean of the
observations is assumed equal to 100, their standard deviation will be 20. The CV is used to compare
the dispersion in different sets of data particularly the data which differ in their means or differ in the
units of measurement. The wages of workers may be in dollars and the consumption of meat in their
families may be in kilograms. The standard deviation of wages in dollars cannot be compared with the
standard deviation of amounts of meat in kilograms. Both the standard deviations need to be
converted into coefficient of variation for comparison. Suppose the value of CV for wages is 10% and
the value of CV for kilograms of meat is 25%. This means that the wages of workers are consistent.
Their wages are close to the overall average of their wages. But the families consume meat in quite
different quantities. Some families use very small quantities of meat and some others use large
quantities of meat. We say that there is greater variation in their consumption of meat. The
observations on the quantity of meat are more dispersed or more variant than observations on wages
of workers.
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Example: Calculate the coefficient of variation for the following sample data

X: 2, 4, 8, 6, 10, 12.

Solution:

𝑥 (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )
2 (2−7)2=25
4 (4−7)2=9
8 (8−7) 2=1
6 (6−7)2=1
10 (10−7)2=9
12 (12−7)2=25
𝑥 = 42 ∑(𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) =70

∑ 𝑥𝑖 42
𝑥̅ = = =7
𝑛 6

∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ ) 70
𝑠 = = = 14
𝑛−1 5

𝑠 = √14 = 3.74

Coefficient of Variation

𝐶𝑉 = ̅
× 100 = 53%

Example: Calculate coefficient of variation from the following distribution of marks:

Marks No. of Students

1−3 40
3−5 30
5−7 20
7−9 10

Solution:

Marks 𝑓 𝑥 𝑓𝑥 (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ ) 𝑓 (𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )
1−3 40 2 80 4 160
3−5 30 4 120 0 0
5−7 20 6 120 4 80
7−9 10 8 80 16 160
Total 100 400 400

∑ 𝑓𝑖 𝑥 𝑖 400
𝑥̅ = = =4
𝑛 100

∑ 𝑓𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥)2 400

𝑠 = = = 4.04
𝑛−1 99
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 𝑠 = √4.04 = 2.01

Coefficient of Variation, 𝐶𝑉 = ̅
× 100 = 50.25% .

Problem: In an IQ test exam the average scores of male students is 3.0 and the standard deviation of
their scores is 0.25, and the corresponding figures for female students are 2.9 and 0.25. Identify the
group (male or female) whose scores are in greater variability. Why?

Problem: The run scores of two cricketers for 10 innings are given below:

Cricketer A 105 12 45 74 0 30 80 55 10 39
Cricketer B 25 35 28 40 21 14 33 31 41 32

a) Who is the better player?

b) Who is a more consistent player and why?

Problem: Following data represent the lives of two models of refrigerators A and B:

Life (in years) 0-2 2-4 4-6 6-8 8-10 10-12

Model A 5 16 13 7 5 4
B 2 7 17 19 9 1

Find the average life of each model. Which model has greater uniformity?