MEASURES OF DISPERSION

The extent to which individual scores differ from average score

is called “Dispersion”.
or
Measures of dispersion measures how spread out a set of data
is.
 There are two types of measures of dispersion

1. Absolute measures of dispersion.

2. Relative measure of dispersion.

 Absolute Dispersion
The dispersion in terms of the same units as the unit of
the data.
For example if the units of the data are in cm, liter or kg
the unit of measures of dispersion is also in cm, liter or
kg.
Absolute dispersion cannot be used to compare the
variation between two sets of data
The commonly used absolute dispersion is

1. Range,
2. Quartiles,
3. Mean deviation,
4. Standard deviation,
5. Variance.
 Relative measure of Dispersion
A measures of dispersion when expressed as pure
number in the form of a coefficient, percentage or ratio is
called relative measures of dispersion.

These measures are independent of unit of

measurement, therefore can be used to compare the
variation between two or more than two sets of data.

The relative measures of dispersion are

1. coefficient of range,
2. coefficient of quartile deviation,
3. mean coefficient of dispersion,
4. coefficient of variation.
 Characteristics of a good measure of dispersion:

An ideal measure of dispersion is expected to possess the

following properties:
1.It should be rigidly defined

2. It should be based on all the items.

3. It should not be unduly affected by extreme items.

The following measures of dispersion are commonly used

RANGE.

QUARTILE DEVIATION

MEAN OR AVERAGE DEVIATION.

VARIANCE.

STANDARD DEVIATION.
 Range

This is the simplest possible measure of dispersion and is

defined as the difference between the largest and smallest
values of the variable.

In symbols, Range = L – S.

Where L = Largest value.

S = Smallest value.
 Co-efficient of Range

Co-efficient of Range =
 Problem 1
Find the range and coefficient of range for the weights of 10
students from the following data:
41,20,15,65,73,84,53,35,71,55.
 Problem 2
Find the range and coefficient of range of the marks
obtained by 100 students given below:

Marks No of Marks No of
students students

0-10 13 40-50 11

10-20 8 50-60 23

20-30 7 60-70 18

30-40 10 70-80 10
 Characteristics of the Range

Easy to calculate

Only uses two values in the distribution - can be

deceptive if there are extreme values

Tells us nothing about the variability of the values within

the distribution
 Interquartile Range/ Quartile
deviation
While calculating the Range we consider
only the extreme values which fail to
account the scatter within the range.
In order to overcome this difficulty the
interquartile range was developed which
discards the extreme values and
concentrates on inner values.
 Quartile Deviation
• In this one quarter of observations at the lower end and
upper end are excluded.
• In other words IQR includes the middle 50% of the
distribution

Quartile Deviation is half of the difference between the

upper and lower, that is, the third and first, quartiles.
Also known as semi-inter quartile range.
Co-efficient of Quartile Deviation

Co-efficient of Q.D =
 Problem 3:

Find the Quartile Deviation for the

following data:
391, 384, 591, 407, 672, 522, 777, 733,
1490, 2488
 Problem 4

Weekly wages of labours are given below.

Calculate Q.D and Coefficient of Q.D.

Weekly Wage (Rs.) : 100 200 400 500 600

No. of Weeks :5 8 21 12 6
 Problem 5

Find the quartile deviation and coefficient of QD

for following data

7
 Problem 6
If the first quartile is 104 and quartile deviation is 18,find the
third quartile.
 Problem 7

Calculate the quartile deviation and coefficient of quartile

deviation from the following data:

Age in yrs No of
members
20 3

30 61

40 132

50 153

60 140

70 51

80 3
 Problem 8
From the following data,calculate the % of workers getting
wages :
• More than Rs 44.
• Between Rs 22 and Rs 58
• QD.

wages No of
workers
0-10 20
10-20 45
20-30 85
30-40 160
40-50 70
50-60 55
60-70 35
70-80 30
 Problem 9
Calculate the appropriate measure of dispersion from the
following data:

Income No of
persons
Less than 14
35
35-37 62
38-40 99
41-43 18
Over 43 7
 Mean Deviation

Mean Deviation is defined as the arithmetic mean of the

absolute deviations (i.e., differences) from the mean or any
other specified values.
Mean Deviation =

Mean Deviation can be calculated from any value of Central

Tendency, viz. Mean, Median, Mode.

Mean Deviation can be of the following types:

▪ Mean Deviation about Mean

▪ Mean Deviation about Median

▪ Mean Deviation about Mode

Formulae
 Problem 10 (ungrouped)

Calculate the mean deviation

about the mean for the
following series:

15,20,17,19,21,13,12,10,17,9,12.
 Steps to calculate mean deviation
(Continuous / Discrete series)

1) Find

2) Find
 Problem 11
Calculate the mean deviation about the mean for the
following data:

x f
5 8
15 12
25 10
35 8
45 3
55 2
65 7
 Problem 12
Find the average deviation about the median for the
following distribution:

Qty Frequency
Demanded
6 4
12 7
18 9
24 18
30 15
36 10
42 5
 Problem 13
Find the mean deviation from the mean and Median for
the following data:

Class Frequenc
Interval y
0-10 8

10-20 12

20-30 10

30-40 8

40-50 3

50-60 2

60-70 7
 Standard Deviation and Variance

In computing the mean deviation the signs

of deviations are ignored .Here we define
another method of dispersion which is
more convenient for mathematical
treatment and like MD is also based on all
the values of the data.
 Relation between Variance and Standard
Deviation

Variance is defined as the average of square of

deviations.

Whereas

Standard Deviation is the square root of Variance.

 Problem 14
In a survey of 50 chemical industries the following data was collected.
Calculate the variance.

Level No of
of companies
profit
10 15

15 10

20 15

25 6

30 4

Total
50
Formulae for Standard deviation
for ungrouped data
 Problem 15

Find the SD of 3,4,5,6.

Problem 16
Find the SD of the following data:
48,43,65,57,31,60,37,48,59,78
For grouped data without CI
 Problem 18
Daily sales (recorded in Rs) of a retail shop are given.
Calculate the mean & standard deviation.

Daily sales No of
(midpoint of days
interval)
102 3

106 9

110 25

114 35

118 17

122 10

126 1
 Problem 19
Find the standard deviation from the following data:

Marks No of
students
10-20 5

20-30 12

30-40 15

40-50 20

50-60 10

60-70 4

70-80 2

SD = 14.3 appx
 Coefficient of variation

It is a relative measure of dispersion used to compare amount of variation of

datasets with different means.
 Problem 17
Find the standard deviation from the following data,also find
coefficient of variation:

Size of frequency
item
10 2
11 7
12 11
13 15
14 10
15 4
16 1
 Problem 20

Find the standard deviation and CV from the following data:

Class frequency
interval
0-10 6

10-20 14

20-30 10

30-40 8

40-50 1

50-60 3

60-70 8
 Problem

The following are the scores made by 2 cricketers in 10

innings:
innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cricketer A 82 47 36 50 43 38 51 13 48 31
Cricketer B 51 5 12 83 37 112 42 18 79 0

Which of the players is a better scorer on an average? Which of them

is more consistent?
 Problem 21
The quarterly profits (in lakhs) of three companies are given
below. Calculate their standard deviation and coefficient
of variation:
Quarters Company A Company B Company C

Jan - March 9.5 15.5 3.3

April -June 13.7 21.2 5.7

July - Sept 10.4 23.4 8.9

Oct - Dec 8.6 18.8 2.6

 Problem 22
The no of matches played and goals scored by two teams
A and B in football in world cup 2002 were as follows.
Find which team may be more consistent.

Matches 27 9 8 5 4
played by
team A
Matches 17 9 6 4 3
played by
team B

No of 0 1 2 3 4
goals
scored in
a match