MEASURES OF

VARIABILITY/DISPERS
ION
 MEASURES OF VARIABILITY
Descriptive statistics that describe how similar a set of scores are to
each other.
Summary statistic that represents the amount of dispersion in a
dataset.
Define how far away the data points tend to fall from the center.
The more similar the scores are to each other, the SMALLER the
measure of dispersion will be.
The less similar the scores are to each other, the LARGER the
measure of dispersion will be.
In general, the more spread out a distribution is, the larger the
measure of dispersion will be.
 Variability is also referred to as spread, scatter or dispersion.
 Importance of Variability
Example 1
Consider a pharmaceutical company studying two new drugs.
Both drugs showed an average success rate of 80%, which seems to
show that they are equivalent to each other. On closer inspection, the Drug A Drug B
researchers saw that participants in the study of Drug A indicated
success rates varying from 60% to 100% while participants in the study Success Success
Rates Rates
of Drug B indicated success rates varying from 75% to 85%.
From the above study: 60% to 100% 75% to 85%
Both drug trials have the same general average of 80% but Drug B
showed much less variability (less difference between the individual
scores) than Drug A. Mean = 80% Mean = 80%
This implies that Drug B is much more consistent and predictable
than Drug A; thus the company will continue with Drug B.
SD = Bigger SD = Smaller
As a conclusion, mean does not always give the full picture of what is
going on with the data. Measures of variability allow researchers to
determine the consistency of results in order to make assumptions
about what is being researched/studied.
 IMPORTANCE OF VARIABILITY
Example 2
A math teacher is interested to know the performance of two groups
(A and B) of his students. He gave them a test of 40 items. The marks Scores of Scores of
Group A Group B
obtained by the students of groups A and B in the test are as follows: 4 17
5 18
5 18
The mean scores of both the groups is 20, as far as mean goes there 17 19
is no difference in the performance of the two groups. But there is a 18 20
difference in the performance of the two groups. 19 20
20 21
36 22
TEST SCORES OF GROUP A ARE FOUND TO RANGE FROM 4 TO 38 38 22
38 23
It means that some of the students of group A are doing very well, Mean = 20 Mean = 20
some are doing very poorly and performance of some of the students is SD = 13.43 SD = 2
falling at the average level.
THE TEST SCORES OF GROUP B RANGE FROM 17 TO 23
The performance of all the students of the second group is falling
within and near about the average (mean) that is 20.
 CONCLUSION
It is evident from this that, the measures of Scores of Scores of
central tendency provide us incomplete picture of a set Group A Group B
4 17
of data. It gives insufficient base for the comparison of 5 18
two or more sets of scores. Thus, in addition to a 5 18
measure of central tendency, we need an index of how 17 19
18 20
the scores are scattered around the center of the 19 20
distribution. In other words, we need a measure of 20 21
dispersion or variability. A measure of central tendency 36
38
22
22
is a summary of scores, and a measure of dispersion is 38 23
summary of the spread of scores. Information about Mean = 20 Mean = 20
variability is often as important as that about the SD = 13.43 SD = 2
central tendency.
 Major Measures of
Variability or
Dispersion
1. RANGE
2. INTERQUARTILE RANGE
3. VARIANCE
4. STANDARD DEVIATION
 1. RANGE
DISADVANTAGES OF RANGE
The range, like the mean has the
The simplest measure of disadvantage of being influenced by
dispersion and it is obtained outliers. Consequently, it is not a good
measure of dispersion to use for data
by taking the difference set containing outliers.
between the largest and the
smallest values in a data set. The calculation of the range is based on
two values only: the largest and the
smallest. All the values in a data set are
ignored.

R = HV - LV Thus, the range is not a very satisfactory

measure of dispersion and it is, in fact,
rarely used.
 1. RANGE

Suppose we have this dataset

of final math exam scores for 20
students:

The largest value is 98. The

smallest value is 58. Thus, the
range is 98 – 58 = 40.
 2. INTERQUARTILE RANGE
Interquartile Range vs. Range
The interquartile range is
the difference between the 
The interquartile range is
first quartile and the third
more resistant to outliers
quartile in a dataset. compared to the range,
which can make it a better
Quartiles are values that metric to use to measure
“spread.”
split up a dataset into four
equal parts.
 HOW TO FIND THE INTERQUARTILE RANGE
1. Arrange the values from smallest to largest or
largest to smallest.
58, 66, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78, 82, 84, 85, 88, 88, 88, 90,
90, 92, 92, 94, 96, 98
2. Find the median. (In this case, it’s the average of
the middle two values)
58, 66, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78, 82, 84, 85 (MEDIAN) 88,
88, 88, 90, 90, 92, 92, 94, 96, 98
3. The median splits the dataset into two halves.
The median of the lower half is the lower quartile
(Q1) and the median of the upper half is the
upper quartile (Q3)
 HOW TO FIND THE INTERQUARTILE RANGE
4. The interquartile range is equal to Q3
– Q1.
58, 66, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78, 82, 84, 85 (MEDIAN) 88,
88, 88, 90, 90, 92, 92, 94, 96, 98
In this case, Q1 is the average of the middle
two values in the lower half of the data set
{(74+77)/2=75.5} and Q3 is the average of
the middle two values in the upper half of
the data set {(90+92)/2=91}.

Thus, the interquartile range is Q3-Q1

91 – 75.5 = 15.5
 3. VARIANCE

It measures how far each number in the set is from the
mean.
If the values are near the mean, the variance will be
small.
In contrast, if the values are far from the mean, the
variance will be large.
Therefore, “The higher variance indicates the greater
variability and the smaller variance indicates the lower
variability
 3. STANDARD DEVIATION

The standard deviation is the positive square root of the

variance.
The standard deviation is the most used measure of dispersion.
The value of the standard deviation tells how closely the values
of a data set are clustered around the mean.
In general, a lower value of the standard deviation for a data set
indicates that the values of the data set are spread over a
relatively smaller range around the mean.
In contrast, a large value of the standard deviation for a data set
indicates that the values of that data set are spread over a
relatively large range around the mean.
 USING DATA ANALYSIS
TO CALCULATE
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
FINDING THE MEASURES OF VARIABILITY AND MEAN USING MS EXCEL
INTERPRETATION:
The mean age of
workers in both these
companies is the same:
40 years. By knowing
only these means, we
may deduce that the
workers have a similar
age distribution in the
two companies. But,
the variation in the
workers’ age is very
different for each of
these two companies.

CONCLUSION:
Ages of Company 2 has
a much larger variation
than ages of the workers
in the first company.
SD
SD
SD
Very Highly
Practiced

Very Highly Practiced

THANK YOU!