MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called measures of central location. They are also classed as summary statistics. The mean (often called the average) is most likely the measure of central tendency that you are most familiar with, but there are others, such as the median and the mode. The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of central tendency, but under different conditions, some measures of central tendency become more appropriate to use than others.
MEAN
The mean is equal to the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the number of values in the data set.
Advantages
Most popular measure in fields such as business, engineering and computer
Science.
It is unique - there is only one answer.
Useful when comparing sets of data.
Disadvantages
Affected by extreme values (outliers)
MEDIAN
The median is the middle score for a set of data that has been arranged in order of magnitude. The median is less affected by outliers and skewed data.
Advantages
Extreme values (outliers) do not affect the median as strongly as they do the mean.
Useful when comparing sets of data.
It is unique - there is only one answer.
Disadvantages
Not as popular as mean.
MODE
The mode is the most frequent score in our data set. On a histogram it represents the highest bar in a bar chart or histogram You can, therefore, sometimes consider the mode as being the most popular option.
Advantages
Extreme values (outliers) do not affect the mode.
Disadvantages
Not as popular as mean and median.
Not necessarily unique - may be more than one answer
When no values repeat in the data set, the mode is every value and is useless.
When there is more than one mode, it is difficult to interpret and/or compare.
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