CHAPTER THREE

MEASURES OF CENTRAL
TENDENCY AND DISPERSION
 Chapter Three
3. Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion
3.1.1 Measures of Central Tendency for Ungrouped Data
 If one number is used to describe the entire sample or population.
Such a number is called measures of central tendency
 Measures of central tendency includes the following:
Arithmetic Mean
 The population mean is the sum of all the population values di-
vided by the total number of population values.
 The sample mean is the sum of all the sample values divided by
the total number of sample values.
 If f1, f2, f3……fn are the respective frequencies of x1, x2, x3..xn.
Then A.M = f1x1 + f2x2 + f3x3 +….fnxn
f1 +f2 +f3+…..fn
Exercise 1: Suppose we have the following observations: 10, 15,
30, 7, 42, 79 and 83. Compute the mean
Exercise 2: weekly incomes of third year regular students are
given in the following frequency distribution.

Weekly Income 54.5 64.5 74.5 84.5 94.5 104.5 114.5

No. Students 6 9 15 25 13 7 5

Compute the mean.

Combined Mean of two groups
x12

Exercise 3: In a class there are 30 females and 70 males. If fe-

males averaged 60 in an examination and males averaged 72, find
the mean for the entire class.
 Cont’d
Exercise 4: Last year there were three sections taking Statistics for
Management I course in Hawassa University. At the end of the se-
mester, the three sections got average marks of 80, 83 and 76.
There were 28, 32 and 35 students in each section respectively.
Find the mean mark for the entire students.
 If one or two values have been taken wrongly while calculating the
mean, then correct mean = 1/n Sum of all the values including
wrong values - the values taken wrongly + correct values
Exercise 5: The mean salary of 1,000 employees of an establish-
ment was found to be birr 541.20. Later on after disbursement of
salary it was discovered that the salary of two employees was
wrongly entered as birr 891 and birr 495. The correct salaries were
birr 591 and birr 555. Find the correct arithmetic mean.
Solution:
 If a wrong figure has been used when calculating the mean the
correct mean can be obtained without repeating the whole process
using:
Correct mean = wrong mean + correct value – wrong value
n
Exercise 6: An average weight of 10 students was calculated to be
65.Latter it was discovered that one weight was misread as 40 in-
stead of 80 k.g. Calculate the correct average weight.
Weighted Arithmetic Mean:
 The average whose component items are being multiplied by cer-
tain values known as “weights” and the aggregate of the multi-
plied results are being divided by the total sum of their “weight”.
 If x1, x2…xn be the values of a variable x with respective weights of
w1, w2… wn assigned to them. Weights are assigned to each item in
proportion to its relative importance.
 Weighted A.M(Xw) = W1X1 + W2X2 + ….+WkXk
W1 + W2 +……Wk
Exercise 7: Suppose a student has secured the following marks in
three tests:
Mid-term test 30
Laboratory 25
Final 20
The simple arithmetic mean will be: 30 + 25 + 20 = 25
3
 However, this will be wrong if the three tests carry different
weights on the basis of their relative importance. Assuming that
the weights assigned to the three tests are:
Mid-term test 2 points
Laboratory 3 points
Final 5 points
 Exercise 8: A student’s final mark in Mathematics, Physics, Chem-
istry and Biology are respectively 82, 80, 90 and 70.If the respec-
tive credits received for these courses are 3, 5, 3 and 1, determine
the approximate average mark the student has got for one course.
Properties of arithmetic mean
1) If a constant amount is added or subtracted from each value in the
series, mean is also added or subtracted by the same constant
amount.
2) If each value in a series is multiplied or divided by a constant, the
mean is also multiplied or divided by the same constant.
3) The algebraic sum of the deviations of the values from the mean =
0.
 Median is defined as the value of the middle item (or the mean of
the values of the two middle items) when the data are arranged in
an ascending or descending order of magnitude.
Exercise 9: Suppose we have the following series: 15, 19,21,7,
10,33,25,18 and 5
Related positional measures: Quartiles, Deciles and Percentiles
I. Quartiles: are values which divide the data set in to four equal parts,
denoted by Q1, Q2 and Q3. The first quartile is also called the lower
quartile and the third quartile is the upper quartile. The second quartile
is the median.
 The jth quartile class is the class with the smallest cumulative fre-
quency greater than or equal to j.n/4. It can be located by counting
j.n/4 of the frequencies beginning from the lowest class.
II. Deciles: are values dividing the data in to ten equal parts, denoted by
. The fifth decile is the median.
 The jth decile class is the class with the smallest cumulative frequency
greater than or equal to j.n/10.
III. Percentiles: are values which divide the data in to one hundred
equal parts, denoted by . The fiftieth percentile is the median.
The jth percentile class is the class with the smallest cumulative
frequency greater than or equal to j.n/100. It can be located by
counting j.n/100 of the frequencies beginning from the lowest class.
Exercise 10: The following table presents the male population of a
certain region in Ethiopia. Find:
a)All quartiles
b)The 9th and 5th deciles and
c)The 65th and 75th percentiles
Age 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40
PPn 2580 3737 4620 5200 7250 620 297 355

Solution:
Mode:
The mode refers to that value in a distribution, which occur most
frequently. It is an actual value, which has the highest concentration
of items in and around it.
Exercise 11: 2, 7, 10, 15, 10, 17, 8, 10, 2
3.1.2 Measures of Dispersion for Ungrouped Data
The measures of central tendency serve to locate the center of the
distribution, but they do not reveal how the items are spread out
on either side of the center. This characteristic of a frequency dis-
tribution is commonly referred to as dispersion.
The degree of variation is evaluated by various measures of dis-
persion. Small dispersion indicates high uniformity of the items,
while large dispersion indicates less uniformity.
The dispersion or variability provides us one more step in in-
creasing our understanding of the pattern of the data. Further, a
high degree of uniformity (i.e. low degree of dispersion) is a de-
sirable quality.
Various measures of dispersions are in use.
The Range and Relative Range
The range is the largest score minus the smallest score.
 Exercise 12: Find the range and relative range for the monthly
salary of ten workers in a certain paint factory given below.
462 480 534 624 498 552 606 588 516 570
The Quartile Deviation (Semi-inter quartile range), Q.D
The inter quartile range is the difference between the third and the
first quartiles of a set of items and semi-inter quartile range is half
of the inter quartile range.
Q.D = Q3 – Q1
2
Coefficient of Quartile Deviation (C.Q.D)
C.Q.D = (Q3 – Q1)/2 = 2×Q.D = Q3 – Q1
(Q3 + Q1)/2 Q3 + Q1 Q3 + Q1
Exercise 13: Compute Q.D and its coefficient for the following dis-
tribution.
values 140- 150- 160- 170- 180- 190- 200- 210- 220- 230- 240-
150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250
f 17 29 42 72 84 107 49 34 31 16 12
 Mean Deviation and Coefficient of Mean Deviation
The Mean Deviation (M.D):
The mean deviation of a set of items is defined as the arithmetic
mean of the values of the absolute deviations from a given aver-
age. Depending up on the type of averages used we have different
mean deviations.
a) Mean Deviation about the mean
Steps to calculate M.D about the mean:
 Find the arithmetic mean,
 Find the deviations of each reading from the mean
 Find the arithmetic mean of the deviations, ignoring sign.
b) Mean Deviation about the median. Steps:
 Find the arithmetic median,
 Find the deviations of each reading from the median
 Find the arithmetic mean of the deviations, ignoring sign.
 c) Mean Deviation about the mode
 Find the arithmetic mode,
 Find the deviations of each reading from the mode
 Find the arithmetic mean of the deviations, ignoring sign.
Exercise 14:
1) The following are the number of visit made by ten mothers to the
local doctor’s surgery. 8, 6, 5, 5, 7, 4, 5, 9, 7, 4
 Find mean deviation about mean, median and mode.
Solutions:
 First calculate the three averages
Mean = 6
Median 5.5
Mode 5
Then take the deviations of each observation from these averages.
Xi 4 4 5 5 5 6 7 7 8 9 T
Xi - 6 2 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 2 3 14
Xi – 5.5 1.5 1.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 14
Xi – 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 2 3 4 14

Coefficient of Mean Deviation (C.M.D)

The coefficient of mean deviation (CMD) is the ratio of the mean
deviation of the observations to their appropriate measure of cen-
tral tendency. In general, CMD = MD
A where A is a measure of central
tendency: the arithmetic mean, the median and mode
Standard Deviation:
It is defined as the positive square-root of the arithmetic mean of
the Square of the deviations of the given observation from their
arithmetic mean. It enables us to determine as to how far individual
items in a distribution deviate from its mean.
 Coefficient of Variation:
 The relative measure is known as the coefficient of variation.
 The coefficient of variation is obtained by dividing the standard
deviation by the mean and multiplies it by 100.
 If we want to compare the variability of two or more series, we can
use C.V. The series or groups of data for which the C.V. is greater
indicate that the group is more variable, less stable, less uniform,
less consistent or less homogeneous.
 If the C.V. is less, it indicates that the group is less variable, more
stable, more uniform, more consistent or more homogeneous.
Exercise 15: If the class size data for the distance learning in five
centers of FBE is 42, 46, 32, 54, and 46. Find the Range, Standard
Deviation, Variance and Coefficient of Variation?
 3.2 Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion for grouped data
3.2.1. Measures of Central Tendency for grouped data
It is usually impossible to secure the original raw data. If the data
are arranged or grouped into a frequency distribution.
MEAN:
 The mean of the data organized into a frequency distribution, we
begin by assuming the observations in each class are represented
by the midpoint of the class.
MEDIAN:
 Since the raw data have been organized into a frequency distribu-
tion, some of the information is not identifiable. As a result, we
cannot determine the exact median but it can be estimated.
MODE: For data grouped into a frequency distribution, the mode
can be approximated by the midpoint of the class containing the
largest number of class frequency.
3.2.2 Measures of Dispersion for grouped data
Range = Upper Limit of the Largest Class - Lower Limit of the
Smallest Class
Exercise 16: A sample of the semimonthly amounts invested in the ABC
Company’s profit sharing plan by employees was organized into a fre-
quency distribution for further studying and is given in the following ta-
ble.
Amount Invested Number of Employees
$30 - $35 3
$35 - $40 7
$40 - $45 11
$45 - $50 22
$50 - $55 40
$55 - $60 24
$60 - $65 9
$65 - $70 4
Find the sample mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation,
variance and coefficient of variation.
Solution:
CI f mi fmi mi - x (mi – x)2 F(mi – x)2
30-35 3 32.5 97.5 -19.04 362.52 1087.56
35-40 7 37.5 262.5 -14.04 197.12 1379.84
40-45 11 42.5 467.5 -9.04 81.72 898.94
45-50 22 47.5 1045 -4.04 16.32 359.04
50-55 40 52.5 2100 0.96 0.92 36.80
55-60 24 47.5 1380 5.96 35.52 852.48
60-65 9 62.5 562.5 10.96 120.12 1081.08
65-70 4 67.5 270 15.96 254.72 1018.88
120 ∑fmi = ∑f(mi-x)2 =
6185 6714.60
THANK YOU!!!

END OF THE 3rd CHAPTER!!