Chapter_ 3: MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

Objectives
At the end of this unit students will be able to:

• Define measure of central tendency

• Explain desirable properties of measure of central tendency
• Summarize an aggregate of statistical data by using single measure
• Memorize the computational formula for different measure of central
tendency like simple arithmetic, weighted, geometric and harmonic
mean as well as for median and mode.
• Know different positional measures such as quartiles, deciles and
percentiles with their interpretation.
 Cont’d
 3.1. INTRODUCTION
 In unit two, we discussed how raw data can be organized in terms of
tables, charts and frequency distributions in order to be easily
understood and analyzed.
 Frequency distributions and their corresponding graphical displays
roughly tell us some of the features of a data set.
 However, they don’t condense the mass of data in a way that we can
easily understand and interpret.
 In this chapter, we will see how to summarize data using a descriptive
measure called average.
 Cont’d
• This will help us in condensing a mass of data into a single value
which is in some sense representative of the whole data set.
• Measures of Central Tendency give us information about the
location of the center of the distribution of data values.
• A single value that describes the characteristics of the entire mass of
data is called measures of central tendency.
• Three measures of central tendency are:
 Mean,
 Median and
 Mode
 Motivating example
• Why Use Measures of Central Tendency?
• Suppose we have a random sample of n values of some measurement
X.
• The values are X1, X2,. . . ,Xn.

• We want to summarize the information contained in this sample as

regards an "average" level.
• An average is a numerical value that indicates the middle point or
central region of the raw data.
• Mathematically summarize data in order to make appropriate
comparisons.
 Cont’d
• For example, you want to describe the age of students attending the
University of Hawassa.
• Therefore if you randomly ask 700 students for their age, the data
will be as follows:
Cont’d
 3.2. Objectives of measures of central tendency
 Objectives of measuring central tendency are:

• To get a single value that represent(describe) characteristics of the

entire data.
• To summarizing/reducing the volume of the data

• To facilitating comparison within one group or between groups of

data.
• To enable further statistical analysis.
3.3. The Summation Notation
Cont’d
3.4. Important characteristics of measures of central
tendency
• It should be clearly stated.

• It should be easy to understand and calculate

• It should be based on all the observation of the data
• It should be suitable for further algebraic operations
• It should be a stable measure. It means that value of average found
for different samples of the same population should be almost
same.
• It should be unaffected by outliers (Values at the extreme of a
range).
•
 3.5. Types of measures of central tendency
• 3.5.1.Mean

• The mean of a sample is determined by summing up all the data

values of the sample and dividing this sum by the total number of
data values.
• Note: It is often impractical or impossible to obtain all the data
values of a population.
• In such instances, a sample is selected from the population and the
mean of the sample is calculated and can be used as an estimate of
the mean of the population.
Cont’d
I. Arithmetic Mean
Cont’d
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 Activity
• Monthly incomes of fourth year regular students are given in the
following frequency distribution.

Compute the mean for these data.

Arithmetic Mean for Grouped Frequency
Distribution
Cont’d
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Cont’d
 Drawbacks of Arithmetic Mean

• It is highly affected by extreme (abnormal) values in the series.

• It can be a number which does not exist in the series.

• It sometime gives such results which appear almost absurd.

• For example it is likely that we can get an average of ‘3.6 children’
per family.
• It can’t be calculated for open-ended classes. For example a height
of 57” or less, 40 and above , etc.
 II. Weighted Arithmetic Mean
• In finding arithmetic mean, all items were assumed to be of equally
importance (each value in the data set has equal weight).
• When the observations have different weight, we use weighted
average.
• Weights are assigned to each item in proportion to its relative
importance.
Cont’d
 Cont’d
• Solution
• We use a weighted arithmetic mean, weight associated with each
course being taken as the number of credits received for the
corresponding course.
 Activity
• If a student gets A in 4 cr. hrs, B in 3 cr. hrs and D in 2 cr. hrs
courses, what is her/his GPA in this semester?
 III. Geometric Mean
• The geometric mean like arithmetic mean is calculated average.
• It used when observed values are measured as ratios, percentages,
proportions, indices or growth rates.
Remark:
 Cont’d
 Example 3.7
• Compute the geometric mean of the following values: 2, 8, 6, 4, 10,
6, 8, 4
 Solution
Cont’d
 IV. Harmonic Mean
• It is a suitable measure of central tendency when the data pertains to
speed, rate and time.
• The harmonic mean is defined as the reciprocal of the arithmetic
mean of the reciprocal of the individual observations.
• If are observations, then harmonic mean can be
represented by the following formula:
Cont’d
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 Example 3.8
• A motorist travels 480km in 3 days. She travels for 10 hours at rate
of 48km/hr on 1st day, for 12 hours at rate of 40km/hr on the 2nd day
and for 15 hours at rate of 32km/hr on the 3rd day.
• What is her average speed?
Cont’d
Cont’d
 3.5.2. Median
• The median of a set of items (numbers) arranged in order of
magnitude (i.e. in an array form) is the middle value or the
arithmetic mean of the two middle values.
• We shall denote the median of
 Median for Ungrouped Frequency Distribution
• We arrange the sample in ascending order of the variable of
interest.
• Then the median is the middle value (if the sample size n is odd) or
the average of the two middle values (if the sample size n is even).
• For ungrouped data the median is obtained by
 Cont’d
 Example 3.9

• The following two samples are the times, in minutes, taken by a

lecturer to travel from home to the Hawassa university main
campus using two different routes.
• Route A and route B. The data is given below
Cont’d
 Cont’d
• The median is easy to calculate for small samples and is not affected
by an "outlier"
• A typical value in the sample, e.g. the value 80 in the sample for
route B.
• It is valid for ranked (ordinal) as well as interval/ratio (numeric) data.

Activity
• The birth weights in pounds of five babies born in a hospital on a
certain day are 9.2, 6.4, 10.5, 8.1 and 7.8.
• Find the median weight of these five babies.
 Median for Grouped Frequency Distribution
• For grouped data the median, obtained by interpolation method, is
given by
 Cont’d
 Example 3.10.

• Calculate the median for the following frequency distribution.

Cont’d
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 Cont’d

Merits of median
• It is not influenced by extreme values.
• Median can be calculated even in case of open-ended
intervals.
• It can be computed for ratio, interval, and ordinal level of data.
Demerits of median
• It is not capable of further algebraic treatment.
• It is not a good representative of the data if the number of
items (data) is small.
• The arrangement of items in order of magnitude is sometimes
3.5.3. The Mode
 Cont’d
 Example 3.11

• Suppose the following are the numbers of people living in a sample

of twelve houses in a street: 3 2 4 4 3 1 2 5 3 3 8 1.
• What is the mode for the given data?
 Solution:

• In this case the most common value is 3 so the mode is 3.

Cont’d
 Cont’d
 Activity

• The marks obtained by ten students in a semester exam in statistics

are: 70, 65, 68, 70, 75, 73, 80, 70, 83 and 86.
• Find the mode of the students’ marks.
Cont’d
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Activity
 The Relationship of the Mean, Median and Mode

 Comparing the Mean, Median, and the Mode

• A measure is a resistant measure if its value is not affected by an

outlier or an extreme data value.
• The mean is not a resistant measure of central tendency because it is
not resistant to the influence of the extreme data values or outliers.
• The median is resistant to the influence of extreme data values or
outliers and its value does not respond strongly to the changes of a
few extreme data values regardless of how large the change may be.
 Cont’d
• The mode has an advantage over both the mean and the median
when the data is categorical since it is not possible to calculate the
mean or median for this type of data.
• Also, the mode usually indicates the location within a large
distribution where the data values are concentrated.
• However, the mode cannot always be calculated because if a
distribution has all different data values, then the distribution is non
modal.
 Cont’d
• In the case of symmetrical distribution; mean, median and mode
coincide.
• That is mean=median = mode.
• However, for a moderately asymmetrical (non symmetrical)
distribution, mean and mode lie on the two ends and median lies
between them and they have the following important empirical
relationship, which is Mean – Mode = 3(Mean - Median)
Cont’d
 Which of the Three Measures is the Best?
• At this stage, one may ask as to which of these three measure of
central tendency is the best.
• There is no simple answer to this question.
• It is because these three measures are based upon different concepts.
• The arithmetic mean is the sum of the values divided by the total
number of observations in the series.
• The median is the value of the value of the middle observations tend
to concentrate, As such; the use of a particular measure will largely
depend on the purpose of the study and the nature of the data.
 Cont’d
• For example, when we are interested in knowing the consumers’
preferences for different brands of television sets or kinds of
advertising, the choice should go in favor of mode.
• The use of mean and median would not be proper.
• However, the median can sometimes be used in the case of
qualitative data when such data can be arranged in an ascending or
descending order.
• Let us take another example. Suppose we invite applications for a
certain vacancy in our company.
 Cont’d
• A large number of candidates apply for that post.
• We are now interested to know as to which age or age group has the
largest concentration of applicants.
• Here, obviously the mode will be the most appropriate choice.

• The arithmetic mean may not be appropriate as it may be

influenced by some extreme values.
 3.5.4. The quantiles (quartiles, deciles,
percentiles)
• Median is the value of the middle item which divide the data in to
two equal parts and found by arranging the data in an increasing or
decreasing order of magnitude,
• where as quintiles are measures which divides a given set of data in
to equal subdivision and are obtained by the same procedure to that
of median but data must be arranged only in an increasing order.
• They are averages of position (non-central tendency).
• Some of these are quartiles, deciles and percentiles.
Cont’d
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 Activity
• The following table presents the male population of a certain region
in Ethiopia.
 Quiz_1(5point)
 Considering the following distribution. Calculate:

a) All quartiles.

b) The 7th decile.

c) The 90th percentile.