What Is a Quartile?
• A quartile is a statistical term that describes a division of observations
into four defined intervals based on the values of the data and how they
compare to the entire set of observations.
KEY POINTS
The quartile measures the spread of values above and below the mean by
dividing the distribution into four groups.
• A quartile divides data into three points—a lower quartile, median, and
upper quartile—to form four groups of the dataset.
• Quartiles are used to calculate the interquartile range, which is a
measure of variability around the median.
How Quartiles Work
Just like the median divides the data into half so that 50% of the measurement
lies below the median and 50% lies above it, the quartile breaks down the data
into quarters so that 25% of the measurements are less than the lower quartile,
50% are less than the median, and 75% are less than the upper quartile.
A quartile divides data into three points—a lower quartile, median, and upper
quartile—to form four groups of the dataset. The lower quartile, or first quartile,
is denoted as Q1 and is the middle number that falls between the smallest value
of the dataset and the median. The second quartile, Q2, is also the median. The
upper or third quartile, denoted as Q3, is the central point that lies between the
median and the highest number of the distribution.
Now, we can map out the four groups formed from the quartiles. The first group
of values contains the smallest number up to Q1; the second group includes Q1
to the median; the third set is the median to Q3; the fourth category comprises
Q3 to the highest data point of the entire set.
• Each quartile contains 25% of the total observations. Generally,
the data is arranged from smallest to largest:
• First quartile: the lowest 25% of numbers
• Second quartile: between 0% and 50% (up to the median)
• Third quartile: 0% to 75%
• Fourth quartile: the highest 25% of numbers
Example of Quartile
Suppose the distribution of math scores in a class of 19 students in
ascending order is:
59, 60, 65, 65, 68, 69, 70, 72, 75, 75, 76, 77, 81, 82, 84, 87, 90, 95, 98
First, mark down the median, Q2, which in this case is the 10th value: 75.
Q1 is the central point between the smallest score and the median. In
this case, Q1 falls between the first and fifth score: 68. (Note that the
median can also be included when calculating Q1 or Q3 for an odd set of
values. If we were to include the median on either side of the middle
point, then Q1 will be the middle value between the first and 10 th score,
which is the average of the fifth and sixth score—(fifth + sixth)/2 = (68 +
69)/2 = 68.5).
Example of Quartile contd..
Q3 is the middle value between Q2 and the highest score: 84. (Or if
you include the median, Q3 = (82 + 84)/2 = 83).
Now that we have our quartiles, let’s interpret their numbers. A
score of 68 (Q1) represents the first quartile and is the
25th percentile. 68 is the median of the lower half of the score set in
the available data—that is, the median of the scores from 59 to 75.
Q1 tells us that 25% of the scores are less than 68 and 75% of the
class scores are greater. Q2 (the median) is the 50th percentile and
shows that 50% of the scores are less than 75, and 50% of the
scores are above 75. Finally, Q3, the 75th percentile, reveals that
25% of the scores are greater and 75% are less than 84.
Using Box Plots to Visualize Skewness
A box plot is a type of plot that displays the five number summary
of a dataset, which includes:
• The minimum value
• The first quartile (the 25th percentile)
• The median value
• The third quartile (the 75th percentile)
• The maximum value
To make a box plot, we draw a box from the first to the third quartile. Then we
draw a vertical line at the median. Lastly, we draw “whiskers” from the
quartiles to the minimum and maximum value.
Depending on the location of the median value in the boxplot, we can tell
whether or not a distribution is left skewed, right skewed, or symmetrical.
Visualization of Data Dispersion: 3-D
Boxplots
10
Scatter
plot
◻ Provides a first look at bivariate data to see clusters of points, outliers,
etc.
◻ Each pair of values is treated as a pair of coordinates and plotted as
points in the plane
11
Positively and Negatively Correlated Data？
12
Positively and Negatively Correlated Data
◻ The left half fragment is positively
correlated
◻ The right half is negative correlated
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Standardizing Numeric
x− Data
Z-score z σ
= μ
:
X: raw score to be standardized, μ: mean of the population, σ: standard deviation
Minmax scaler:
Decimal Scaled
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Sampling
Sampling can be used as a data reduction technique because it allows a large data
set to be represented by a much smaller random data sample (or subset). Suppose
that a large data set, D, contains N tuples. Let’s look at the most common ways
that we could sample D for data reduction, as illustrated in Figure.