Measures of Central Tendency

Module 3

Prepared by: Dr. Parth Shah

• Population is the set of objects or individuals which is under
consideration for statistical inquiry.
• A characteristic is a particular aspect of the individuals in the
population about which the uinquiry is carried out e.g. “height” of a
group of individuals or “Income” of a group of families or “marital
status” of a group of persons and so on are examples of a
characteristic.
Characteristics/Data are of two types:
Quantitative: recorded as a number
Qualitative: data is usually represented using words or alphabets (not
numbers)
• Types of Quantitative Data:
• Ungrouped Data: Raw data, not arranged or classified
• Example: Marks of students are recorded as: 65, 70, 63, 90, 88, 54, 63, 88,
65, 63
• Total number of students(values) = 𝑁 = 10
• sum of all marks = σ 𝑥 = 709
• σ : SUM OF (or summation of)
• Grouped Data:
• Data can be arranged in a meaningful manner by preparing frequency
tables. Data Value (𝒙) Frequency (𝒇)
• Example: (Marks) (Number of
Students)
54 1
63 3
65 2
70 1
88 2
90 1
• The above data is called as Discrete Grouped Data/Ungrouped Frequency
Distribution
• Continuous Grouped Data/ Grouped Frequency Distribution
• There are infinite possible number of data values, so they cannot be listed
separately. We use Class Intervals to accumulate and represent such data.
• Each class-interval has two Limits e.g. if a class-interval is 𝐿1 − 𝐿2
• Then 𝐿1 – Lower Limit
𝐿2 – Upper Limit
Width or Size or length or magnitude of a C.I. is given by
width = 𝐿2 – 𝐿1 = Upper limit – Lower Limit
Each class – interval is represented by its class- mark or mid – value
𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡+𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑡
Class mark =
2
In order to analyze the data, we calculate averages of different types.
• Mathematical Averages: Based on all observations and are calculated using
mathematical formulae. These include
Arithmetic Mean
Geometric Mean
Harmonic Mean
• Positional Averages: Based on only some observations and are located at a
specific place in the sets. These include
Median
Mode
• We will start with Arithmetic Mean
• Arithmetic Mean: is the ratio of sum of all data points to the total number of values.
• Notation: 𝑥ҧ
• Formula:
𝑠𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑠
• AM = 𝑥ҧ =
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑠
• For Ungrouped data/ Raw data:
σ𝑥
• AM = 𝑥ҧ = , where 𝑥 = data values and 𝑁 = Total number of data points
𝑁
• For Discrete Grouped Data:
σ𝑓𝑥
• AM = 𝑥ҧ = where 𝑥 = data values and 𝑁 = σ𝑓
,
𝑁
• For Continuous Grouped Data:
σ𝑓𝑥
• AM = 𝑥ҧ = , where 𝑥 = class-mark and 𝑁 = σ𝑓
𝑁
1. Find arithmetic mean for the following sets of observations
a) 125, 132, 127, 139, 140, 142, 137, 122, 120 and 130
b) 1357, 1454, 1389, 1405, 1485
Ans: a) 131.4 and b) 1418
2. Find the arithmetic mean of the following sets of observations:
a) 43,30,44,67,35,40,59
b) 16,19,27,10,5,7,12,15
Ans: a) 45.43 and b) 13.875
3. Calculate the arithmetic mean for the following distribution:
𝒙 12 14 16 18 20 22
𝒇 5 10 15 12 8 3
• Ans: 16.64
4. A dice was tossed 60 times. The frequency distribution of the digits
appearing on the uppermost face is given below. Find the arithmetic
mean.
Digit 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total
No. of
8 9 8 11 12 12 60
Tosses

Ans: 3.76
5. Calculate the arithmetic mean for the following data giving weekly
wages of workers in hundreds of rupees.
Wages in Rupees 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100 100-120 120-140
No. of Workers 7 12 16 13 13 4

Ans: 77.69
6. Calculate the arithmetic mean for the following data, representing
marks of 80 students.
Marks 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50
No. of Students 12 13 21 19 15

Ans: 26.5
7. Find the AM for the following data representing monthly salary of a
group of employees:
Salary in Rs. 700-800 800-900 900-1100 1100-1500 1500-1600
No. of employees 32 43 55 22 18

Ans: 1012.06
8. Find the AM of the following data
No. of Units
50-99 100-149 150-199 200-249 250-299 300-349 350-399
Produced
No. of
4 9 11 15 12 8 2
Factories

Ans: 218.76
9. Find the mean of the following data.
Age (in years) No. of Persons

Below 10 15
Below 20 33
Below 30 54
Below 40 80
Below 50 97
Below 60 100

Ans: 27.10
10. Find mean age for the given frequency distribution.
Age (less than) 15 25 35 40 60
No. of persons 9 17 22 29 35

Ans: 26.85
11. Lives of two models of refrigerator in a survey is given below.
Which refrigerator has a higher average life?
Life No of Refrigerators
(No. of years) Model – A Model – B
0–2 5 2
2–4 16 7
4–6 13 12
6–8 7 19
8 – 10 5 9
10 – 12 4 1

Ans: Mean of Model A – 5.1 and Mean of Model B – 6.16

12. Find the arithmetic mean for the following
Age 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79
No. of 8 14 22 25 18 9 4
Persons

Ans: 41.9
13. The following data gives frequency distribution of marks of some
students. The average marks are 33. Using this, find the number of
students with marks between 40 and 50.
Marks 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60
No. of 5 10 25 30 ---- 10
students

Ans: 20
14. For the frequency distribution given below the mean is 25.4. Find
missing frequency.
Class interval 10 – 20 20 – 30 30 – 40 40 – 50 50 – 60
Frequency 20 15 10 - 2

Ans: 3
15. The mean weekly salary of 50 employees of a company was
computed as Rs. 680. It was later found that salary of Mr. X was
wrongly taken as Rs. 270 instead of Rs. 720. What will be the corrected
weekly mean salary?
Ans: 689
16. A.M. of weights of 80 students in a class is 68(kgs). Find the A.M. if
two new students with weights 65 and 63 join the class and 3 students
with weights 58, 62 and 72 cancel their admission.
Ans: 68.05
17. Arithmetic mean of a certain number of the observations was 60.8.
Five new observations 85, 60, 73, 81, 90 were added to the group. Now
the Arithmetic mean of all the observations becomes 65.05. Find how
many observations were there originally.
Ans: 15
Arithmetic Mean in Groups:
• If 𝑛1 , 𝑛2 , … , 𝑛𝑘 are sizes of 𝑘 groups with means 𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑘 then
arithmetic mean 𝑥ҧ of the combined group is given by
𝑛1 𝑥1 +𝑛2 𝑥2 +⋯+𝑛𝑘 𝑥𝑘
• 𝑥ҧ =
𝑛1 +𝑛2 +⋯+𝑛𝑘
Questions:
1. In a private health club, there are 200 members, 100 men, 80 women and
20 children. The average weights of men, women and children were 60Kgs,
50Kgs and 35Kgs respectively. Find the average weight of the combined
group of all members of the club. Ans: 53.5
2. The average weight of 95 students in division A is 70kgs. The average
weight of 120 students in division B is 72 Kgs. Find average weight of the
combined class. Ans: 71.12
3. There are three groups in a class of 100 students. The first contain 25
students with average pocket money Rs. 62, the second group consists
of 50 students with average of Rs. 55. Find the average pocket money
of the students from the third group if the average for the entire class is
Rs. 58.
Ans: 60
4. If the average marks in a certain test of boys and girls in a class are
80 and 85 respectively and if the average marks for the entire class are
83.75. Find the percentage of boys in the class.
Ans: 25%
Weighted Arithmetic Mean:
• Some items are important than others. Weights are considered as a
measure of importance. When ratios and percentages are averaged,
Weighted Arithmetic Mean is more suitable.
• If 𝑤1 , 𝑤2 , … , 𝑤𝑛 are weights corresponding to the values of 𝑥 as
𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑛 , then the weighted arithmetic mean is given by
𝑤1 𝑥1 +𝑤2 𝑥2 +⋯+𝑤𝑛 𝑥𝑛 σ𝑤𝑥
• 𝑥ҧ𝑤 = =
𝑤1 +𝑤2 +⋯+𝑤𝑛 σ𝑤
Questions:
1. A student scores 65 marks in theory, 95 marks in practical and 25 marks
in class work in Physics, another student scores 70,80 and 15 marks
respectively. If theory, practical and class work are assigned weights as
6,3 and 1 respectively, find who scores more.
Ans: 𝑿𝑨 = 𝟕𝟎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑿𝑩 = 𝟔𝟕. 𝟓
2. A car runs 75kms at a speed of 50kms per hour, another 85kms at a speed
of 68kms per hour and the remaining distance of 135kms with a speed of
45kms per hour. What is the average speed of the car per hour?
Ans: 51.30
3. A student X scored 50,55,60 and 45 in four subjects. Another student Y
scored 53,50,47 and 59 in the same subjects. If the weights are 2,4,3 and
1respectively for these subjects, find which student scored more.
Ans: 𝑿𝑨 = 𝟓𝟒. 𝟓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑿𝑩 = 𝟓𝟎. 𝟔
4. Scores of five candidates applying for a job are given. There are two
posts to be filled. Select the best candidates using weighted A.M.
Candidates
Weights
A B C D E
Written Test 2.5 75 65 90 80 85
Group Discussion 3 70 85 80 70 65
Final Interview 1 60 60 55 58 50

• Ans: 𝑿𝑨 = 𝟕𝟎. 𝟑𝟖, 𝑿𝑩 = 𝟕𝟑. 𝟒𝟔, 𝑿𝑪 = 𝟖𝟎, 𝑿𝑫 = 𝟕𝟐 𝑿𝑬 = 𝟕𝟎. 𝟑𝟖

Median
• Important measure of Location
• Gives us the observation at the middle of the given data.
For Ungrouped Data:
• Let 𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑛 be 𝑛 observations in order, either ascending or descending
𝑛+1
• Median = th observation if 𝑛 is odd.
2
𝑛 𝑛
• Median = AM of th and + 1 th observations if 𝑛 is even.
2 2
For Grouped Discrete Case:
• Let 𝑁 be the total number of observations (N = σ𝑓).
• Median = value of the variable for which the Cumulative frequency (less
than) exceeds 𝑁/2.
For Grouped Continuous Case:
• Class intervals have to be continuous.
• Median Class = Class interval for which the cumulative frequency exceeds
𝑁/2.
• Median can then be calculated with a formula.
• 𝑙1 =Lower class limit of the median class
• 𝑙2 =upper class limit of the median class
• 𝑓=frequency of the median class
• 𝑐𝑓=cumulative frequency of the premedian class
𝑁
(𝑙2 −𝑙1 ) 2 −𝑐𝑓
• Median = 𝑙1 +
𝑓
Questions:
1. Find the median of the following set of observations
53,42,30,55,75,50,32,39,62. Ans: 50
2. Find the median for the following data containing ten observations
93,32,47,55,78,65,95,100,86,70. Ans: 74
3. Find median of the following data representing the age in years of
children.
Age(in years) 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
No. of Children 14 20 40 54 40 18 7 7
Ans: 6
4. Calculate the median of the following distribution.
X 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
F 7 15 19 23 20 15 8 5

Ans: 30
5. Calculate the median of the following data: Ans: 21133.33
Monthly
No. of Families
income in Rs.
15000 – 17000 70
17000 – 19000 100
19000 – 21000 120
21000 – 23000 150
23000 – 25000 100
25000 – 27000 60

6. Find the median of the following data. Ans: 18.85

Class Interval Frequency
5-9 8
10-14 18
15-19 27
20-24 21
25-29 10
30-34 8
35-39 7
Quartiles:
• Three values that divide the distribution into four equal parts.
• First Quartile: 𝑄1 , Second Quartile: 𝑄2 , Third Quartile: 𝑄3
𝑁
• No. of Observations less than 𝑄1 is . i.e. 25% of total observations lie
4
below 𝑄1 .
𝑁
• No. of Observations less than 𝑄2 is . i.e. 50% of total observations lie
2
below 𝑄2 .
3𝑁
• No. of Observations less than 𝑄3 is .
i.e. 75% of total observations lie
4
below 𝑄3 .
• 𝑄1 and 𝑄2 are the limits within which middle 50% of the observations lie.
Quartile 𝑸𝒊 , 𝒊 = 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑 :
• 𝑖 𝑡ℎ Quartile Class: Class interval for which the CF exceeds 𝑁𝑖/4 for the
first time
• 𝑙1 =Lower class limit of the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ quartile class
• 𝑙2 =upper class limit of the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ quartile class
• 𝑓=frequency of the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ quartile class
• 𝑐𝑓=cumulative frequency of the class preceding the 𝑖 𝑡ℎ quartile class
𝑁𝑖
(𝑙2 −𝑙1 ) 4 −𝑐𝑓
• 𝑄𝑖 = 𝑙1 +
𝑓
Questions:
1. Find the three quartiles for the following data. (Q1=21.39, Q2=27.4
and Q3 = 34.8) Daily Wages in Rs. No. of Workers
10-15 12
15-20 28
20-25 36
25-30 50
30-35 25
35-40 18
40-45 16
45-50 10
50-55 5

2. For the following distribution of weights of 60 students, find the

three quartiles
Weight in kgs 30 – 34 35 – 39 40 – 44 45 – 49 50 – 54 55 – 59 60 – 64
No of Students 3 5 12 18 14 6 2

Ans: Q1=42.42, Q2=47.28, Q3=52

Deciles:
• Nine values that divides the entire data into ten equal parts.
• First Decile: 𝐷1 , Second Decile: 𝐷2 , Third Decile: 𝐷3 ,………, Nineth
Decile: 𝐷9
• 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile: 𝐷𝑘 , 𝑘 = 1,2,3, … , 9
• Deciles converts the data into ten equal parts each consisting of N/10
observations.
• The number of observations less than 𝐷𝑘 is kN/10, k = 1,2,3, … , 9
Decile Formula:
• 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile Class = Class interval whose CF exceeds 𝑘𝑁/10
• 𝑙1 = Lower Class Limit of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile Class
• 𝑙2 = Upper Class Limit of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile Class
• 𝑓 = Frequency of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile Class
• 𝑐𝑓 =Cumulative Frequency of the class preceding the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Decile Class
𝑘𝑁
(𝑙2 −𝑙1 ) −𝑐𝑓
• 𝐷𝑘 = 𝑙1 + 10
; 𝑘 = 1,2,3, … , 9
𝑓
 Questions:
1. Find the third and seventh decile for the following data. (D3=22.78,
D7=32.8) Daily Wages in Rs. No. of Workers
10-15 12
15-20 28
20-25 36
25-30 50
30-35 25
35-40 18
40-45 16
45-50 10
50-55 5
2. For the following distribution of weights of 60 students, find the 3rd ,
6th and 9th deciles. (D3=43.67, D6=48.94, D9=56.17)
Weight in kgs 30 – 34 35 – 39 40 – 44 45 – 49 50 – 54 55 – 59 60 – 64
No of Students 3 5 12 18 14 6 2
Percentiles:
• Ninety-nine values that divides the entire data into hundred equal
parts.
• First Percentile: 𝑃1 , Second Percentile: 𝑃2 , Third Percentile: 𝑃3 ,………,
Ninety Nineth Percentile: 𝑃99
• 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile: 𝑃𝑘 , 𝑘 = 1,2,3, … , 99
• Percentiles converts the data into hundred equal parts each
consisting of 𝑁/100 observations.
• The number of observations less than 𝑃𝑘 is kN/100, k = 1,2,3, … , 99
Percentile Formula:
• 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile Class = Class interval whose CF exceeds 𝑘𝑁/100
• 𝑙1 = Lower Class Limit of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile Class
• 𝑙2 = Upper Class Limit of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile Class
• 𝑓 = Frequency of the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile Class
• 𝑐𝑓 =Cumulative Frequency of the class preceding the 𝑘 𝑡ℎ Percentile
Class
𝑘𝑁
(𝑙2 −𝑙1 ) 100−𝑐𝑓
• 𝑃𝑘 = 𝑙1 + , 𝑘 = 1,2,3, … , 99
𝑓
Questions:
1. Find the 9𝑡ℎ and 87𝑡ℎ percentile for the following data. (P9=16.07,
P87=41.56) Daily Wages No. of
in Rs. Workers
10-15 12
15-20 28
20-25 36
25-30 50
30-35 25
35-40 18
40-45 16
45-50 10
50-55 5

2. For the following distribution of weights of 60 students, find the 13rd,

61th and 90th percentiles.
Weight in kgs 30 – 34 35 – 39 40 – 44 45 – 49 50 – 54 55 – 59 60 – 64
No of Students 3 5 12 18 14 6 2
Ans: P13=39.3, P61=49.11, P90=56.17
3. The following is the distribution of sales in thousands of Rs., Find :-
(i) The least sales below which lies the sales of 45% of the shops.
(ii) The highest sales above which lies the sales of 36% of the shops.
(iii) Sales limits between which lies the sales of the middle 44% of the
shops.
Sales 10-19 20–29 30–39 40–49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99
No. of 4
2 15 20 30 16 10 8 5
shops

Ans: i) P45=43677, ii) P64=51625, iii) P28=36400 & P72=57125

Mode:
• One of the measures of Central Tendency. Central in the sense that it gives
us the value that occurs most frequently in the data.
• Data Set can have more than one mode, in which case we have bimodal,
trimodal or multimodal data.
• Ungrouped Data
• By Observation, the value of the data which is repeated maximum number
of times
• Can arrange the data in ascending or descending order, but not necessary
• Discrete Grouped data
• Mode = the value of 𝑥 for which the frequency is the maximum.
• Grouped Continuous Data: Formula is used to calculate the mode if
there is only one mode.
• Modal Class: Class interval with the maximum frequency
• 𝑙1 : Lower limit of the Modal Class
• 𝑙2 : Upper limit of the Modal Class
• 𝑓1 = frequency of the Modal Class
• 𝑓0 = frequency of the Pre-Modal Class
• 𝑓2 = frequency of the Post-Modal Class
(𝒍𝟐 −𝒍𝟏 )(𝒇𝟏 −𝒇𝟎 )
• Mode = 𝒍𝟏 +
𝒇𝟏 −𝒇𝟎 +(𝒇𝟏 −𝒇𝟐 )
 Class Interval Frequency
(𝒇)
Pre-Modal 𝑓0
Class
𝑙1 − 𝑙2 𝑓1
Post-Modal 𝑓2
Class
Questions:
1. Find the mode of the following data 39,42,30,41,38,58,41,35,37,41.
Ans: 41
2. Find the mode of the following data Size of Pants (in cms) 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
No. of Pants 11 15 25 40 20 15 10
Ans: 75
3. Prove that median lies between mean and mode for the following data.
Age (below) 10 20 30 40 50 60
No. of persons 11 35 50 79 89 100
Ans: Mean: 28.6, Median=30, Mode=34.24
4. Find the mode of the following data.
Wages (in ₹) 200-300 300-400 400-500 500-600 600-700
No. of Employees 15 26 36 20 10
Ans: 438.46
5. Find the mode of the following data
Income (₹) 2000-4000 4000-6000 6000-8000 8000-10000 10000-12000
No. of Persons 16 34 60 37 13
Ans: 7061.22
6. Find mean, median, mode of the following data.
Class 10-30 30-50 50-70 70-90 90-110 110-130
Frequency 4 10 14 12 8 6

Ans: Mean=70.37,Median=68.57, Mode=63.33

7. If the mode of the following distribution is 130, find the missing
frequency.
Class 60-75 75-90 90-105 105-120 120-135 135-150
Frequency 3 3 6 --------- 7 6
Ans: 5
8. If the mode of the following distribution is 340, find the missing
frequencies
Daily Wages (₹) 0-100 100-200 200-300 300-400 400-500 500-600 600-700 Total
No. of Workers 4 16 60 ------ ------ 6 4 230

Ans: 𝒇𝟎 = 𝟒𝟎, 𝒇𝟏 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎