STATISTICS

MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY :

An average value or a central value of a distribution is the value of
variable which is representative of the entire distribution, this
representative value are called the measures of central tendency.
Generally there are following five measures of central tendency :
(a) Mathematical average
(i) Arithmetic mean (ii) Geometric mean
(iii) Harmonic mean
(b) Positional average
(i) Median (ii) Mode
1. ARITHMETIC MEAN/MEAN :
(i) For ungrouped dist. : If x1, x2, ...... xn are n values of variate
xi then their mean x is defined as
n

x + x2 + ..... + xn åx i
x= 1 = i =1

n n
Þ Sxi = n x
(ii) For ungrouped and grouped freq. dist. : If x1, x2, .... xn are
values of variate with corresponding frequencies f1, f2, ... fn then
their mean is given by
n

f x + f x + .... + fn x n åf x i i n

x= 1 1 2 2 = i =1
, where N = åf i
f1 + f2 + .... + fn N i =1

(iii) By short cut method :

Let di = xi – a

Sfi d i
\ x =a+ , where a is assumed mean
N
(iv) By step deviation method :
di x i - a
Let ui = =
h h

æ Sf u ö
\ x = a+ç i i ÷h
è N ø
(v) Weighted mean : If w1, w2, ...... wn are the weights assigned to
the values x1, x2, ..... xn respectively then their weighted mean is
defined as
n

w x + w 2 x 2 + ..... + w n x n åw x i i
Weighted mean = 1 1 = i =1

w1 + ..... + w n n

åw
i =1
i

(vi) Combined mean : If x1 and x2 be the means of two groups

having n1 and n2 terms respectively then the mean (combined mean)
of their composite group is given by combined mean
n1 x1 + n 2 x2
=
n1 + n 2
If there are more than two groups then,
n1 x1 + n1 x 2 + n3 x 3 + ....
combined mean =
n1 + n2 + n 3 + ....
(vii) Properties of Mean :
l Sum of deviations of variate about their mean is always zero
i.e. S(xi – x ) = 0, Sfi(xi – x ) = 0
l Sum of square of deviations of variate about their mean is
minimum i.e. S(xi – x )2 is minimum

l If x is the mean of variate xi then mean of (xi + l) is x + l

mean of (lxi) = l x

mean of (axi + b) is a x + b (where l, a, b are constant)

l Mean is independent of change of assumed mean i.e. it is not
effected by any change in assumed mean.
2. MEDIAN :
The median of a series is the value of middle term of the series when
the values are written in ascending order. Therefore median, divides
an arranged series into two equal parts.
Formulae of median :
(i) For ungrouped distribution : Let n be the number of variate
in a series then
éæ n + 1 ö th
êç ÷ term, (when n is odd)
êè 2 ø
Median = ê th th
ê Mean of æ n ö and æ n + 1 ö terms, (when n is even)
êë ç2÷ ç2 ÷
è ø è ø
(ii) For ungrouped freq. dist. : First we prepare the cumulative
frequency (c.f.) column and Find value of N then
éæ N + 1 öth
êç ÷ term, (when N is odd)
êè 2 ø
Median = ê th th
êMean of æ N ö and æ N +1 ö terms, (when N is even)
êë ç2÷ ç2 ÷
è ø è ø
(iii) For grouped freq. dist : Prepare c.f. column and find value of
N
then find the class which contain value of c.f. is equal or just
2
greater to N/2, this is median class
æN ö
ç 2 –F÷
\ Median = l + è ø ×h
f
where l — lower limit of median class
f — freq. of median class
F — c.f. of the class preceding median class
h — Class interval of median class
3. MODE :
In a frequency distribution the mode is the value of that variate which
have the maximum frequency
 Method for determining mode :
(i) For ungrouped dist. : The value of that variate which is repeated
maximum number of times
(ii) For ungrouped freq. dist. : The value of that variate which
have maximum frequency.
(iii) For grouped freq. dist. : First we find the class which have maximum
frequency, this is model calss

f0 - f1
\ Mode = l + ×h
2f0 - f1 - f2

where l — lower limit of model class

f0 — freq. of the model class
f1 — freq. of the class preceding model class
f2 — freq. of the class succeeding model class
h — class interval of model class
4. RELATION BETWEEN MEAN, MEDIAN AND MODE :

In a moderately asymmetric distribution following is the relation between

mean, median and mode of a distribution. It is known as impirical
formula.
Mode = 3 Median – 2 Mean
Note : (i) Median always lies between mean and mode
(ii) For a symmetric distribution the mean, median and mode
coincide.
5. MEASURES OF DISPERSION :
The dispersion of a statistical distribution is the measure of deviation of
its values about the their average (central) value.
Generally the following measures of dispersion are commonly used.
(i) Range
(ii) Mean deviation
(iii) Variance and standard deviation
(i) Range : The difference between the greatest and least values of
variate of a distribution, are called the range of that distribution.
If the distribution is grouped distribution, then its range is the
difference between upper limit of the maximum class and lower
limit of the minimum class.
difference of extreme values
Also, coefficient of range =
sum of extreme values
(ii) Mean deviation (M.D.) : The mean deviation of a distribution
is, the mean of absolute value of deviations of variate from their
statistical average (Mean, Median, Mode).
If A is any statistical average of a distribution then mean deviation
about A is defined as
n

å|x i - A|
Mean deviation = i =1
(for ungrouped dist.)
n
n

å f |x i i - A|
Mean deviation = i =1
(for freq. dist.)
N
Note :- It is minimum when taken about the median
Mean deviation
Coefficient of Mean deviation =
A
(where A is the central tendency about which Mean deviation is taken)
(iii) Variance and standard deviation : The variance of a
distribution is, the mean of squares of deviation of variate from
their mean. It is denoted by s2 or var(x).
The positive square root of the variance are called the standard
deviation. It is denoted by s or S.D.

Hence standard deviation = + variance

 Formulae for variance :
(i) for ungrouped dist. :

S (x i - x) 2
s 2
x
=
n
2
Sx 2i Sx2i æ Sx i ö
2
s = 2
– x = -ç ÷
x
n n è n ø
2
2 Sd2i æ Sd i ö
s =
d -ç ÷ , where di = xi – a
n è n ø
(ii) For freq. dist. :
Sfi (x i - x)2
s = 2
x N
2
Sfi x2i Sfi x2i æ Sfi x i ö
s = N – (x) = N - ç N ÷
2 2
x
è ø
2
Sfi d 2i æ Sfi d i ö
s = N -ç N ÷
2
d
è ø

é Sf u2 æ Sf u ö2 ù di
s = h2 êê N – èç N ø÷ úú
i i i i
2
u where ui =
ë û h
s
(iii) Coefficient of S.D. =
x
s
Coefficient of variation = ×100 (in percentage)
x
Note :- s2 = s2x = s 2d = h2 s 2u

6. MATHEMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VARIANCE :

l Var.(xi + l) = Var.(xi)
Var.(lxi) = l2.Var(xi)
Var(axi + b) = a2.Var(xi)
where l, a, b, are constant
l If means of two series containing n1, n2 terms are x1 , x 2 and
their variance's are s12 , s22 respectively and their combined mean
is x then the variance s2 of their combined series is given by
following formula

n1 (s12 + d12 ) + n2 ( s22 + d 22 )

s=
2
where di = x1 - x , d2 = x 2 -x
(n1 + n 2 )

n1 s12 + n2 s22 n1 n2
i.e. s2 = + (x1 - x 2 )2
n1 + n2 (n1 + n2 ) 2