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 Name : Ifra Noor

 Roll Number : 502-250002

 Subject : Statistics

 Submitted to : Mam Rabia Bashir

Parametric And Non Parametric Test

In statistical analysis, a parametric test is a type of test that assumes the data being tested follows a known

distribution, such as a normal distribution, binomial distribution or other distribution form. A non-parametric

test, on the other hand, does not assume the data being tested follows a specified distribution, and is often

used when the data does not meet the parametric assumptions of the population sample. (Agresti, A., &

Franklin, C 2014).

What Is a Parametric Test?

A parametric test makes assumptions about the following population’s parameters:

1. Normality : Data in each group should be normally distributed.

2. Independence : Data in each group should be sampled randomly and independently.

3. No outliers : No extreme outliers in the data.

4. Equal Variance : Data in each group should have approximately equal variance. (Conover, W.

J.1999).

If possible, we should use a parametric test when conducting statistical analysis.

Types of Parametric Tests

Common types of parametric tests include:

 T-test

 Z-test
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 ANOVA (analysis of variance)

 Pearson correlation

 Linear regression

What Is a Non-Parametric Test?

A non-parametric test (sometimes referred to as a “distribution-free test”) does not assume anything about

the underlying distribution (for example, that the data comes from a normal, parametric distribution). Non-

parametric tests tend to be used when the assumptions of parametric tests are clearly violated, and provide a

flexible testing option for skewed or non-normally distributed data. (Gibbons, J. D., & Chakraborti,2011).

At the same time, non-parametric tests can still have other assumptions that must be met, including that data

in all groups must have the same dispersion or spread.

Types of Non-Parametric Tests

Common types of non-parametric tests include:

 Wilcoxon signed-rank test

 Mann-Whitney U test (or Wilcoxon rank-sum test)

 Kruskal-Wallis test

 Friedman test

 Chi-square test

When to Use Parametric vs. Non-Parametric Tests

Choosing between using a parametric versus non-parametric test for statistical analysis often depends on

normality, sample size and amount of skewness/outliers in the data. (Shapiro, S. S., & Francia,1972).

Use a parametric test for:

 Normally distributed data

 Data with homogeneity of variance

 Data with independent observations

 Interval or ratio data

Use a non-parametric test for:

 Non-normally distributed data

 Small sample sizes

 Data with outliers

 Nominal, ordinal or interval data

How to Test for Normality for Parametric vs. Non-Parametric Tests

The following methods can be used to check for data normality, and help determine whether to use a

parametric test (for normally distributed data) or a non-parametric test (for a non-normal or unspecified

distribution):

Q-Q (Quantile-Quantile) Plot

We can assess normality visually using a Q-Q (quantile-quantile) plot. In these plots, the observed data is

plotted against the expected quantile of a normal distribution. If the data are normal, it will appear as a

straight line in a Q-Q plot.

A demo code in Python is seen here, where a random normal distribution has been created and will be

assessed using a Q-Q plot.

Image: Adrienne Kline /

Built In

Based on the normality of this data, we would likely use a parametric test.

Assumption 1: Normality

Parametric tests assume that each group is roughly normally distributed.

If the sample sizes of each group are small (n < 30), then we can use a Shapiro-Wilk test to determine if

each sample size is normally distributed. (Hollander, M., & Wolfe,1999).

If the p-value of the test is less than a certain significance level, then the data is likely not normally

distributed.
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However, if the sample sizes are large then it’s better to use a Q-Q plot to visually check if the data is

normally distributed.

Assumption 2: Equal Variance

Parametric tests assume that the variance of each group is roughly equal.

We can visually check if this assumption is met by creating side-by-side boxplots for each group to see if the

boxplots of each group are roughly the same size.

Another way to check if this assumption is met is to use the following rule of thumb: If the ratio of the

largest variance to the smallest variance is less than 4, then we can assume the variances are approximately

equal and use the two sample t-test. (Mann, H. B., & Whitney,1947).

Assumption 3: Independence

Parametric tests assume that the observations in each group are independent of observations in every other

group.

The easiest way to check this assumption is to verify that the data was collected using a probability sampling

method – a method in which every member in a population has an equal probability of being selected to be

in the sample. (Wilcoxon,1945).

Examples of probability sampling methods include:

 Simple random sampling

 Stratified random sampling

 Cluster random sampling

 Systematic random sampling

If one of these methods was used to collect the data, we can assume that this assumption is met.

Assumption 4: No Outliers

Parametric tests assume that there are no extreme outliers in any group that could adversely affect the results

of the test.

One way to visually check for outliers is to create boxplots for each group to see if there are any clear

outliers that are much larger than the rest of the other observations in the group. (Siegel & Castellan,1988).

Another way to detect outliers is to perform Grubbs’ Test, which is a formal statistical test that can be used

to identify outliers.

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 References

Agresti, A., & Franklin, C. (2014). Statistics: The art and science of learning from data. Pearson Education.

Conover, W. J. (1999). Practical nonparametric statistics. John Wiley & Sons.

Gibbons, J. D., & Chakraborti, S. (2011). Nonparametric statistical inference. CRC Press.

Kruskal, W. H., & Wallis, W. A. (1952). Use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis. Journal of the

American Statistical Association, 47(260), 583-621. doi: 10.1080/01621459.1952.10483441

Levene, H. (1960). Robust tests for equality of variances. In I. Olkin (Ed.), Contributions to probability and

statistics (pp. 278-292). Stanford University Press.

Shapiro, S. S., & Francia, R. S. (1972). An approximate analysis of variance test for normality. Journal of

the American Statistical Association, 67(337), 215-216. doi: 10.1080/01621459.1972.10481232

Siegel, S., & Castellan, N. J. (1988). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. McGraw-Hill.

Tukey, J. W. (1977). Exploratory data analysis. Addison-Wesley.

Hollander, M., & Wolfe, D. A. (1999). Nonparametric statistical methods. John Wiley & Sons.

Mann, H. B., & Whitney, D. R. (1947). On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically

larger than the other. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 18(1), 50-60. doi: 10.1214/aoms/1177730491

Wilcoxon, F. (1945). Individual comparisons by ranking methods. Biometrics Bulletin, 1(6), 80-83. doi:

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