CHAPTER 4
Measures of Central Tendency
Measures of Position
Measures of Variability
4.1 Measures of Central Tendency
Also known as measures of central location
Values that identify the “center” of a set of data
Measures: mean, median, mode
A. Mean
Most common measure of a central location.
Sum of all values of the observations divided by the number of
observations
For a population: For a sample:
X x
X
n
N
where: X is the observation in the population/sample
N/ n is the total number of observations in the population/ sample
Characteristics of the mean:
1. The mean is affected by the presence of extreme values.
2. The sum of the deviations of the observations from the mean is zero.
3. The sum of the squared deviations of the observations from the mean
is minimum.
4. It is a good measure for interval and ratio type of data.
B. Median
Middle value of a set of observations arranged in increasing or
decreasing order.
Divides the data into halves, i.e., half of the observations fall below the
median and the other half are above the median.
Characteristics of the median:
1. It is not affected by the presence of extreme observations.
2. The sum of absolute deviations of the observation from the median is
minimum.
3. It is an appropriate measure for at least an ordinal type of data.
C. Mode
Value of the observation which occurs with greatest frequency.
Note: It is possible that a certain data has two modes. In such case, the
distribution of the data set is bimodal (with two modes). When a certain
data set has more than two modes, the distribution is called multimodal
distribution.
Characteristics of the mode:
1. Mode is determined by frequency.
2. It is an appropriate measure for nominal data.
Example 1
1. USTP employees have the following monthly dues in thousand pesos
to their cooperative: 10, 40, 5, 20, 10, 25, 50, 30, 10, 5, 15, 25, 50, 10, 30, 5,
25 and 45. Find the mean, median and mode.
A. Mean: Since we have 18 observations, then N=18.
x
x 10 40 5 20 10 25 50 30 10 5 15 25 50 10 30 5 25 45
N 18
x 22.78
B. Median: we need to arrange first the data in increasing order, we have
5,5,5,10,10,10,10,15,20,25,25,25,30,30,40,45,50,50
𝑛+1 𝑡ℎ
To determine the k location of the median, we solve for (
th )
2
where n is the number of observations.
𝑛 + 1 𝑡ℎ 18 + 1 𝑡ℎ
( ) =( ) = 9.5𝑡ℎ
2 2
Thus, the median is located between the 9th and 10th observation. That is,
between 20 and 25. To get the median, we have
𝟐𝟎+𝟐𝟓
Med = = 𝟐𝟐. 𝟓
𝟐
C. Mode: Among the observations, the value that occurs the most is
Mo = 10
Example 2
From the following data: 13, 19, 25, 28, 30, 30, 34, 41, 47, 47, 56
Find the mean, median, mode.
A. Mean
∑ 𝑥 13 + 19 + 25 + 28 + 30 + 30 + 34 + 41 + 47 + 47 + 56
𝑥̅ = =
𝑛 11
̅ = 𝟑𝟑. 𝟔𝟒
𝒙
B. Median
𝑛 + 1 𝑡ℎ 11 + 1 𝑡ℎ
( ) =( ) = 6𝑡ℎ
2 2
Thus, the median is the 6th observation
Med = 𝟑𝟎
C. Mode: Since 30 and 47 appeared equally, then
Mo = 30, 47
4.2 Measures of Position
The measures of position (also known as fractiles/quantiles) refer to the
observation value in which a specified fraction or percentage of observations
in the data set fall below that observation.
Procedures in computing for percentiles, deciles and quartiles:
1. Arrange the data in an increasing order of magnitude.
2. Solve for the values of L , where
kn
100 for Percentile
k n
L for Decile
10
k n
4 for Quartile
Where k is the location of the percentile, decile or quartile.
n is the number of observations
3. If L is an integer, get the average of the L and the L 1
th th
observations to obtain the desired fractile. If L is fractional, get the
next higher integer to find the required location. The fractile
corresponds to the value in that location.
Example 3
USTP employees have the following monthly dues (in thousand pesos) to
their cooperative: 10, 40, 5, 20, 10, 25, 50, 30, 10, 5, 15, 25, 50, 10, 30, 5, 25 and
45. Find Q2, D4, and P90.
Solutions: Recall that we have already arranged the data in our previous
example.
5,5,5,10,10,10,10,15,20,25,25,25,30,30,40,45,50,50
a. Q2 (second quartile), where k = 2
𝑘𝑛 2(18)
L= = =9
4 4
And since L is an integer, we obtain our fractile by getting the average of
the Lth = 9th and (L+1)th=10th observations:
𝟗𝒕𝒉 + 𝟏𝟎𝒕𝒉 𝟐𝟎+𝟐𝟓
Q2 = = = 𝟐𝟐. 𝟓
𝟐 𝟐
b. D4 (fourth decile) where k = 4
𝑘𝑛 4(18) 36
L = 10 = = 𝑜𝑟 7.2
10 5
Since the obtained L is fractional, we consider the next higher integer,
which is 8, as the location of our fractile:
D4 = 8th observation = 15
c. P90 (ninetieth percentile) where k = 90
𝑘𝑛 90(18) 81
L = 100 = = 𝑜𝑟 16.2
100 5
Since the obtained L is fractional, we consider the next higher integer,
which is 17, as the location of our fractile:
P90 = 17th observation = 50
Try this!
1. Using the same given in Example 2, solve for Q3 , D5 and P25 .
2. Find Q1 , Q 2 , D 4 , D 7 and P9 for the following data:
100 111 123 112 132
141 145 150 155 156
160 101 102 102 103
4.3 Measures of Variability
Variability or dispersion refers to how much the observations spread out
from the mean. The higher the variability, the more dispersed are the
observation; the lower it is, the more consistent are the observations.
Example 3
Three students are named finalists in the search for A-1 Student of the Year.
The evaluation papers revealed the following scores of the students in five
different areas:
Student A 97 92 96 95 90
Student B 94 94 92 94 96
Student C 95 94 93 96 92
Some measures of variability are: Range, Variance and Standard Deviation.
A. Range
The range (R) is defined as the difference between the highest value (HV)
and the lowest value (LV) in the data. That is, R HV LV
Example: Based on the data above, find the range of the scores of each
student:
Student A 97 – 90 = 7
Student B 96 – 92 = 4
Student C 96 – 92 = 4
B. Variance
It is the measure that considers the position of each observation relative to
the mean.
n x 2 x
2
s
2
, where x = individual value
n (n 1)
n = number of observations
Example: Find the variance of the scores of each student:
Solutions:
a. Student A
∑ 𝑥 2 = 972 + 922 + 962 + 952 + 902 = 44214
∑ 𝑥 = 97 + 92 + 96 + 95 + 90 = 470
𝟓(𝟒𝟒𝟐𝟏𝟒) − (𝟒𝟕𝟎)𝟐
𝒔𝟐 = = 𝟖. 𝟓
𝟓(𝟓 − 𝟏)
b. Student B
∑ 𝑥 2 = 942 + 942 + 922 + 942 + 962 = 44188
∑ 𝑥 = 94 + 94 + 92 + 94 + 96 = 470
𝟓(𝟒𝟒𝟏𝟖𝟖) − (𝟒𝟕𝟎)𝟐
𝒔𝟐 = =𝟐
𝟓(𝟓 − 𝟏)
c. Student C
∑ 𝑥 2 = 952 + 942 + 932 + 962 + 922 = 44190
∑ 𝑥 = 95 + 94 + 93 + 96 + 92 = 470
𝟓(𝟒𝟒𝟏𝟗𝟎) − (𝟒𝟕𝟎)𝟐
𝒔𝟐 = = 𝟐. 𝟓
𝟓(𝟓 − 𝟏)
C. Standard Deviation
It is the measure of the spread or dispersion of scores from the mean of
distribution. It is obtained by just getting the square root (√) of the
variance:
n x 2 x
2
s
n (n 1)
Example: Find the standard deviation of the scores of each student:
Student A 𝒔 = √𝟖. 𝟓 = 𝟐. 𝟗𝟐
Student B 𝒔 = √𝟐 = 𝟏. 𝟒𝟏
Student C 𝒔 = √𝟐. 𝟓 = 𝟏. 𝟓𝟖