Measures of Dispersion

MEASURES OF
DISPERSION
RANGE
QUARTILE DEVIATION
MEAN DEVIATION
STANDARD DEVIATION
MEASURES OF
DISPERSION
• DISPERSION IS THE EXTENT TO WHICH
VALUES IN A DISTRIBUTION DIFFER FROM
THE AVERAGE OF THE DISTRIBUTION.
RANGE
• Range (R) is the difference between the largest (L) and
the smallest value (S) in a distribution. Thus,
FORMULA:
R=L-S
Higher value of Range implies higher dispersion and

vice-versa.
EXAMPLE:
Look at the following values:
20, 30, 40, 50, 200
•Calculate the Range.
R=L-S
R= 200-20
R=180
QUARTILE DEVIATION
• The Quartile Deviation (QD) is the product of half of the
difference between the upper and lower quartiles.
Quartile Deviation= (Q3 – Q1) / 2
• A Coefficient of QD is used to study & compare the

degree of variation in different situations.
Coefficient of Quartile Deviation = (Q3 –

Q1) / (Q3 + Q1) X 100
.
QUARTILE DEVIATION
FORMULA – EXAMPLE #1
Find the first and third quartiles of the set
{3,7,8,5,12,14,21,15,18,14}
 First, we write the data in increasing order: 3, 5, 7, 8,12,
14, 14, 15, 18, 21
 Median is 13 (it is the mean of 12 and 14)
Therefore, the lower half of the data is: {3, 5, 7, 8,

12}.
Then Q1 = 7 (there are five values in the lower half, so
the middle value is the median). Similarly, the upper
half of the data is: {14, 14, 15, 18, 21}, so Q3 = 15.
QUARTILE DEVIATION
FORMULA – EXAMPLE #
• The following dollar amounts were the
hourly collections from a Salvation Army
kettle at a local store one day in
December: $19, $26, $25, $37, $32, $28, $22,
$23, $29, $34, $39, and $31. determine the
first quartile and the third quartile.
Find the first quartile and third quartile for the data set
{19, 26, 25, 37, 32, 28, 22, 23, 29, 34, 39, 31}
Increasing order – 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39
From before, the median is 28.5
The lower half is {19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28}
The first quartile is

23+25/2 =24
The upper half is {29, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39}
The third quartile is

32+34/2=33
MEAN ABSOLUTE
DEVIATION
• The mean absolute deviation of a data set is the average
distance between each data point and the mean. It gives us
an idea about the variability in a dataset.
• Here’s how to calculate the mean absolute deviation

Step 1: Calculate the mean
Step 2: Calculate how far away each data point is from the
mean using positive distances. These are called absolute
deviation
Step 3: Add those deviations together
Step 4: Divide the sum by the number of data points
FORMULA
MAD = Σ|x − μ|
N
• Σ is Sigma, which means to sum up

• || (the vertical bars) mean Absolute Value, basically to
ignore minus signs
• x is each value (such as 3 or 16)
• μ is the mean (in our example μ = 9)
• N is the number of values (in our example N = 8)
CALCULATING IT
• Find the mean of all values… use it to work out
distances … then find the mean of those distances.
• In three steps:
1. Find the mean of all values
2. Find the distance of each values from that
mean (subtract the mean from each value,
ignore minus signs)
3. Then find the mean of those distances
1. Example: 3, 6, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 16
EXAMPLE 2
STANDARD DEVIATION
• The Standard Deviation is a measure of
how spread out numbers are.
• It symbol is σ (the Greek letter sigma)
• The formula is easy: it is the square root
of the Variance
Step 1: find the mean
Step 2: for each data point, find the square
of its distance to the mean
Step 3: sum the values from Step 2.
Step 4: divide by the number of data points
Step 5: take the square root.
MEASURES OF
POSITION
 STANDARD SCORES (Z-SCORES)
 PERCENTILES
 DECILES
 QUARTILES
MEASURES OF
POSITION
• THE MEASURES OF POSITION ARE USED TO
LOCATE THE RELATIVE POSITION OF A
SPECIFIC DATA VALUE IN RELATION TO THE
REST OF THE DATA
STANDARD SCORE
• ALSO KNOWN AS Z-SCORES, ARE EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF
STANDARD DEVIATION FROM THEIR MEANS.
PERCENTILES
• PERCENTILES ARE THE VALUES OF THE
VARIABLE THAT DIVIDE A SET OF
OBSERVATION INTO 100 EQUAL PARTS
FORMULA
R=P/100* (number of items + 1)
DECILES
• Deciles are nine partitional values of the
data or the given set of observation into ten
equal parts. These 9 values are represented
by D₁, D₂, D₃, D₄, D₅, D₆, D₇, D₈ and D₉ .
QUARTILES
• Quartiles are the values of the variable that
divide a set of observation into 4 equal
parts. Each set of observation has 3 quartiles
and they are denoted by Q1, Q2, and Q3.
QUARTILES
• The first quartile Q1 is a value in the dataset
that 25% of the values fall below Q1, and
75% of the values fall above Q1.
• The second quartile Q2 is a value in the
data set that 50% of the values fall below Q2
and 50% of the values fall above Q2.
• The third quartile Q3 is a value in the data
set that 75% of the values fall below Q3 and
25% of the values fall above Q3.

Measures of Dispersion

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MEASURES OF

Higher value of Range implies higher dispersion and

Look at the following values:

20, 30, 40, 50, 200

•Calculate the Range.

Quartile Deviation= (Q3 – Q1) / 2

• A Coefficient of QD is used to study & compare the

Coefficient of Quartile Deviation = (Q3 –

Therefore, the lower half of the data is: {3, 5, 7, 8,

From before, the median is 28.5

The lower half is {19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28}

The first quartile is

The third quartile is

• Here’s how to calculate the mean absolute deviation

• Σ is Sigma, which means to sum up

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