BSECE-4B

AVERAGES OR MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY OR MEASURES OF LOCATION

• Averages are “statistical constants which enable us to comprehend in a single effort the
significance of the whole”. They give us an idea about the concentration of the values in the
central part of the distribution.
• In short, an average of a statistical series is the value of the variable which is representative of
the entire distribution.
The following are the three measures of central tendency that are in common use
(i) Mean
(ii) Median
(iii) Mode

Additional information:
Requisites for an ideal measure of central tendency
The following are the characteristics to be satisfied by an ideal measure of central tendency:
(i) It should be rigidly defined.
(ii) It should be readily comprehensible and easy to calculate.
(iii) It should be based on all the observations.
(iv) It should be suitable for further mathematical treatment. By this we mean that if we are given
the averages and sizes of a number of series, we should be able to calculate the average of the
composite series obtained on combining the given series.
(v) It should be affected as little as possible by fluctuations of sampling. And
(vi) It should not be affected much by extreme values.

MEAN
- Arithmetic mean or simply mean of a set of observations is their sum divided by the number of
observations.
- The arithmetic mean x bar of n observations x1, x2, … , xn is given by

• In case of frequency distribution x i |fi, i = 1, 2, … , n, where fi is the frequency of the variable xi,
 • In case of grouped or continuous frequency distribution, x is taken as the mid-value of the
corresponding class

Example:
1. (a) Find the mean of the following frequency distribution
x: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
f: 5 9 12 17 14 10 6
(b) Calculate the mean of the marks from the following table
Marks: 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60
No. of students: 12 18 27 20 17 6
Solution:
(a)
x f fx
1 5 5
2 9 18
3 12 36
4 17 68
5 14 70
6 10 60
7 6 42

73 299
1 299
Therefore, x= 𝛴𝑓𝑥 = = 4.09
𝑁 73

(b)
Marks No. of students (f) Mid-point (x) fx
0-10 12 5 60
10-20 18 15 270
20-30 27 25 675
30-40 20 35 700
40-50 17 45 765
50-60 6 55 330

Total 100 2800

1 2800
Therefore, x = 𝛴𝑓𝑥 = = 28
𝑁 100

2. Determine the mean for the set: {26, 31, 21, 29, 32, 26, 25, 28}
 26+31+21+29+32+26+25++28 218
Mean = = = 27.25
8 8

3. A football team keep records of the number of goals it scores per

match during a season.
Find the mean number of goals per match.

Solution:
The table can be used, with a third column added

𝟕𝟑
Mean = = 𝟏. 𝟖𝟐𝟓.
𝟒𝟎

Advantages
(i) It is rigidly defined
(ii) It is easy to understand and easy to calculate
(iii) It is based upon all the observations
(iv) It is amenable to algebraic treatment
(v) It is affected least by fluctuations of sampling. Sometimes described by saying that arithmetic
mean is a stable average.

Disadvantages
(i) It cannot be determined by inspection nor can it be located graphically.
(ii) It cannot be used if we are dealing with qualitative characteristics which cannot be measured
quantitatively such as beauty, intelligence, honesty etc.
(iii) It cannot be obtained if a single observation is missing or lost or is illegible unless we drop it
out and compute the mean of the remaining values.
(iv) It is affected very much by extreme values
(v) It may lead to wrong conclusions if the details of the data from which it is computed are not
given.
(vi) It cannot be calculated if the extreme class is open
(vii) In extremely asymmetrical (skewed) distribution, usually arithmetic mean is not a suitable
measure of location.

Median
 - Median of a distribution is the value of the variable which divides it into two equal parts.
- It is the value which exceeds and is exceeded by the same number of observations. The median is
thus a positional average.
• If the number of observations is odd then median is the middle value after the values have been
arranged in ascending or descending order of magnitude.
• In case of even numbers of observations, there are two middle terms and median is obtained by
taking the arithmetic mean of the middle terms
Example
1. Determine the median values for the set: {25, 20, 15, 35, 18}.
Ranking gives: 15, 18, 20, 25, 35. Therefore the median is 20
2. Determine the median values for the set: {26, 31, 21, 29, 32, 26, 25, 28}
1
Ranking gives: 21, 25, 26, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32. Therefore the median is (26 + 28) = 27
2
3. Twelve members of a gym class, some in good physical condition and some in not-so-good
physical condition, see how many sit-ups they can complete in a minute. Here are their
scores.
2 3 6 10 12 12 14 15 15 24 25 ,
What is the median number of sit- ups
SOLUTION:
1
Therefore the median is (12 + 14) = 13
2

• In case of discrete frequency distribution median is obtained by considering the cumulative

frequencies
Example
Obtain the median for the following frequency distribution:
x: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
f: 8 10 11 16 20 25 15 9 6

x f c.f.
1 8 8
2 10 18
3 11 29
4 16 45
5 20 65
6 25 90
7 15 105
8 9 114
9 6 120
 120
Hence N=120 , N/2 = 60

Cumulative frequency (c.f.) just greater than N/2, is 65 and the value of x corresponding to 65 is 5.
Therefore median is 5.

• In the case of continuous frequency distribution, the class corresponding to the c.f. just greater
than N/2 is called the median class and the value of median is obtained by the ff. formula.

Example:
Find the median wage of the following distribution
Wages: 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70
No. of laborers: 3 5 20 10 5

Wages No. of laborers c.f

20-30 3 3
30-40 5 8
40-50 20 28
50-60 10 38
60-70 5 43
Here N/2 = 43/2 = 21.5. C.f. just greater than 21.5 is 28 and the corresponding class is 40-50. Thus the
median class is 40-50. Hence the median wage is
10
M = 40 + (21.5 − 8) = 40 + 6.75 = 46.75
20

Advantages:
(i) It is rigidly defined
(ii) It is easily understood and is easy to calculate. In some cases it can be located merely by
inspection
(iii) It is not at all affected by extreme values
(iv) It can be calculated for distributions with open-end classes
Disadvantages:
(i) In case of even number of observations median cannot be determined exactly. We merely
estimate it by taking the mean of two middle terms
(ii) It is not based on all the observations
(iii) It is not amenable to algebraic treatment
(iv) As compared with mean, it is affected much by fluctuations of sampling.
Uses
1. Median is the only average to be used while dealing with qualitative data which cannot be
measured quantitatively but still can be arranged in ascending or descending order of magnitude
2. It is to be used for determining the typical value in problems concerning wages, distribution of
wealth etc.

Mode
- Mode is the value which occurs most frequently in a set of observations and around which the
other items of the set cluster densely.
- In other words, it is the value of the variable which is predominant in the series.
• In the case of discrete frequency distribution mode is the value of x corresponding to maximum
frequency.
Example:
1. Determine the modal values for the set {26, 31, 21, 29, 32, 26, 25, 28}
Mode = 26, since it is most commonly occurring value.
2. Here we have the number of items found by 11 children in a scavenger hunt. What was the
modal number of items found?
14 6 11 8 7 20 11 3 7 5 7
SOLUTION:
The mode is 7, because there are more 7s than any other number

Example:
x: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
f: 4 9 16 25 22 15 7 3

The value of x corresponding to the maximum frequency 25 is 4. Hence mode is 4.

But in any one (or more) of the following cases:
(i) If the maximum frequency is repeated,
(ii) If the maximum frequency occurs in the very beginning or at the end of the distribution, and
(iii) If there are irregularities in the distribution,
The value of mode is determined by the method of grouping,

Example:
Find the mode of the following frequency distribution:
(x): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
(f): 3 8 15 23 35 40 32 28 20 45 14 6
The maximum frequency in each column is given in bold. To find mode we form the following table:

On examining the values in column (3) above, we find that the value 6 is repeated the maximum number
of times and hence the value of mode is 6 not 10 which is an irregular item.

• In case of continuous frequency distribution, mode is given by the formula:

Where; l – lower limit

h – magnitude
f1 – frequency of modal class
f0 and f2 – frequencies of the classes preceding and succeeding the modal class
respectively
Example:
Find the mode for the following distribution:
Class-interval: 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80
Frequency: 5 8 7 12 28 20 10 10

Solution:
Here maximum frequency is 28. Thus the class 40-50 is the modal class. Using the formula the value of
mode is given by:
 10(28−12)
Mode = 40+ = 40 + 6.666 = 46.67 (𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑥. )
(2𝑥28−12−20)

Advantages:
(i) Mode is readily comprehensible and easy to calculate. Like median, mode can be located in
some cases merely by inspection.
(ii) Mode is not at all affected by extreme values
(iii) Mode can be conveniently located even if the frequency distribution has class-intervals of
unequal magnitude provided the modal class and the classes preceding and succeeding it are
of the same magnitude. Open-end classes also do not pose any problem in the location of
mode.
Disadvantages:
(i) Mode is ill defined. It is not always possible to find a clearly defined mode. In some cases,
we may come across distributions with two modes. Such distributions are called bi-modal. If
a distribution has more than two modes, it is said to be multimodal.
(ii) It is not based upon all the observations.
(iii) It is not capable of further mathematical treatment.
(iv) As compared with mean, mode is affected to a greater extent by fluctuations of sampling.
Uses:
Mode is the average to be used to find the ideal size.