Chapter 3

Descriptive Statistics
(Ungrouped Data)

Faculty of Business and Communication

Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
How can we analyze data and make them useful
for works?
In this chapter we will learn:
a) Mean, median and mode for ungrouped and
grouped data.
b) Range, interquartile range, mean absolute
deviation, variance, and standard deviation
for ungrouped and grouped data.
c) Measure of skewness.
 3.1 Ungrouped Data
(a) Mean (Arithmetic Mean)
o Mean is the most commonly used measure of
central tendency. It is the average of a group of
data. Mean is calculated by summing up all the
observations in the data set and then dividing it by
the number of data.
o The population mean is normally represented by
the Greek letter µ, pronounced as miu while the
sample mean is represented by X .
o Computation of the mean can be represented either
as the population mean or sample mean. The
following formula is used to compute mean.
X X1 + X 2 + X 3 + ... + X N
➢Population mean, = = N
N
➢Sample mean, X =
x = x1 + x2 + x3 + ... + xn
n n

where N = number of elements in the population

n = number of elements in the sample.
Example
A company has five departments. The
number of workers in five departments are
24, 13, 19, 26 and 11 respectively. What is
the mean for the number of workers in a
department?
Solution
•Total number of workers in five departments is
Σx = 24 + 13 + 19 + 26 + 11
= 93
•Mean for the number of workers in a department is
(b) Median
o Median is the middle value of an ordered array of
data.
o If there is an odd number of observations in the
data that is arranged in ascending or descending
order, the median is the middle value of the data.
o If there is an even number of observations in the
data, the median is the average of the two middle
numbers.
Example
Determine the median for the following data.
11 14 3 21 17 22 16 19 16 5 7
19 8 9 20 4 15
Solution
Arrange the number in ascending order.
3 4 5 7 8 9 11 14 15 16 16
17 19 19 20 21 22

There are seventeen data (odd numbers), therefore

the median is the 9th data, median =15. There are
eight observations at the left of the value 15 and eight
observations at the right.
Example
Determine the median for the following data.
12 17 4 11 12 25 13 18 18 6 2
13 6 2 22 3
Solution
(c) Mode
o Mode is the value that occurs frequently in a set of
data.
o The mode is located by arranging the data in
ascending or descending order.
o For categorical data, mode is the category that has
the highest frequency.
o A set of data may have one, two or many
modes or no mode at all.
(d) Quartiles
o Quartiles are the most widely used measures of
non-central location and they are used to describe
positional values of large sets of numerical data.
o While median is the middle value that splits the
ordered numbers into half (50% of the observations
are smaller and 50% are larger than the median),
quartiles are descriptive measures that split the
ordered data into four quarters.
• First Quartile (Q1)
o The first quartile is a positional value where
25% of the observations are smaller and 75%
are larger than the value.
o Q1 = n 4+ 1 th value of ordered observations.
• Third Quartile (Q3)
o The third quartile is a positional value where
75% of the observations are smaller and 25%
are larger than the value.
o Q3 = 3(n + 1) th value of ordered observations.
4
• The following lists the rules for obtaining quartile values.
a) If the positioning point is an integer, the numerical
observation on the positioning point is chosen for
the quartiles.
b) If the positioning point is halfway between two
integers, the average of their corresponding
observations is selected.
c) If the positioning point is neither an integer nor a
value halfway between two integers, round off to
the nearest integer and select the numerical value of
the corresponding observation.
Example
The three-year annual returns of fourteen low-risk
funds arranged in ascending order are given as
follows.

9.77 11.35 12.46 13.80 15.47 17.48 18.37

18.47 18.61 20.72 21.49 22.47 31.50 38.16

Find the first and third quartiles.

Solution
The quartiles are computed as follows.
Position of first quartile,
n +1
Q3 = th value of ordered observations
4
(14 + 1)
=
4
= 3.75th ordered observation
Therefore, using rule (c), Q1 is approximately the fourth
ordered observations. Q1 = 13.80
Position of third quartile,
3( n + 1)
• Q3 = th value of ordered observations
4

3(14 + 1)
= 4

= 11.25th ordered observation

Therefore, using rule (c), Q3 is approximated by using

the eleventh ordered observation. Q3 = 21.49
e) Range
• Range = largest value - smallest value
• Range is the difference between the largest
and the smallest observations in a set of data.
Example 5.1
Find the range for the following data.
9.77 11.35 12.46 13.80 15.47 17.48
18.37 18.47 18.61 20.72 21.49 22.47
31.50 38.16

• Solution
Range = Largest value – Smallest value
= 38.16 - 9.775
=28.39
f) Interquartile Range
o Interquartile range is the difference between the
third and first quartiles in a set of data.
o This measure considers the spread in the
middle fifty percent of the data, therefore it is
not influenced by the extreme values of the data
set.
o It is calculated by
= Q3 – Q1
• Quartile Deviation (Semi-interquartile Range)
o Another measure of distance dispersion is the
quartile deviation. Quartile deviation is defined as
follows.
1
o Quartile deviation = 2 (Q3 – Q1)

o It is also frequently called semi-interquartile

range.
Example
Find the interquartile range and quartile deviation
of the following data.
9 11 14 13 15 17 18
37 18 47 18 61 20 50
Solution
• Arrange the data in ascending order.
9 11 13 14 15 17 18 18 18 20
37 47 50 61

14 + 1
Location of Q1 = 4 = 3.75 = 4th observation, and Q1 =
14
3
Location of Q3 = 4
(14 + 1) = 11.25 = 11th observation
and Q3 = 37
Interquartile range = Q3 – Q1
= 37 – 14 = 23
1
Quartile deviation = 2 (Q3–Q1)
1
= 2
(37 – 14) = 11.5

Thus, the interquartile range is 23 and the quartile

deviation is 11.5
g) Sample Variance for Ungrouped Data
o Variance for a sample of n measurements is the
sum of the squared distances of the
measurements from the mean divided by (n –
1).
o This is normally denoted by the symbol s2.
o The sample variance is written in different
forms.
 1
s2 =  ( x − x)
2
n −1
1 2
s2 = ( x 2 − n x )
n −1
or 2 1 2 ( x) 2
s = [ x − ]
n −1 n

Where n = number of observations or values in the sample

x = observation or value
x = sample mean
Σx2 = sum of all the squares of observations
• Sample Standard Deviation
o Sample standard deviation is the square root of
the sample variance.
o Sample standard deviation, s = s 2
o The sample standard deviation is calculated
using the following formulae.
Example
Find the variance and the standard deviation of the
sample data: 1, 7, 2, 5
Solution
Variance
∑x=1 + 7 + 2 + 5 =15
∑x² = 12 + 72 + 22 + 52 = 79

1 ( x) 2 1 152
s =
2
[ x 2 − ]= [79 − ] = 7.583
n −1 n 4 −1 4
Standard deviation: s = 7.583 = 2.754