Measures of Central Tendency

and Dispersion
Unit IV Overview | Statistics
 Introduction to Central Tendency
• Statistical measure identifying the center or
average of data.
• Summarizes a large dataset with one
representative value.
Purpose and Functions of Averages
• Simplify complex data.
• Facilitate comparisons.
• Assist in decision-making.
• Foundation for statistical analysis.
 Characteristics of a Good Average
• Rigidly defined.
• Based on all observations.
• Amenable to mathematical treatment.
• Not affected by extreme values excessively.
• Easy to understand and compute.
 Types of Averages
• Arithmetic Mean (AM)
• Median
• Mode
• Harmonic Mean
 Arithmetic Mean
• Meaning: Sum of values divided by the
number of values.
• Merits: Simple, uses all data, mathematically
sound.
• Demerits: Affected by outliers, not suitable for
qualitative data.
 Median
• Middle value in ordered data.
• Merits: Not affected by outliers, good for
ordinal data.
• Demerits: Ignores extreme values, limited
mathematical use.
 Mode
• Value that occurs most frequently.
• Merits: Easy to find, unaffected by outliers.
• Demerits: May be undefined or multiple, not
based on all data.
 Harmonic Mean
• Reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of
reciprocals.
• Merits: Good for rates, uses all data.
• Demerits: Difficult to compute, fails if any
value is zero.
 Measures of Dispersion -
Introduction
• Shows how much data values deviate from the
average.
• Measures variability and consistency.
 Objectives and Properties of
Dispersion
• Measure variability, compare consistency,
support analysis.
• Good measures are clear, comprehensive, and
mathematically usable.
 Range
• Difference between maximum and minimum
values.
• Merits: Easy to calculate.
• Demerits: Affected by extreme values, ignores
intermediate data.
 Mean Deviation
• Average of absolute deviations from mean or
median.
• Merits: Simple, less affected by extremes.
• Demerits: Ignores signs, not used in advanced
statistics.
 Standard Deviation
• Square root of average squared deviations
from the mean.
• Merits: Most reliable, used widely.
• Demerits: Complex, affected by outliers.