Measure of Skewness and

Kurtosis
Dr. Romario Bhong P. Ybaez
Research Director
St. Paul University Dumaguete

Measure of Skewness and Kurtosis

Types of Skewness
1. Skewed to the right
distribution

tapers more to the right

longer tail to the right
more concentration of values below than above
the mean
Mean > Md > Mo
most skewed curves encountered in the social
sciences are skewed to the right

Monthly Income of Households in Barangay Maligaya, 2003

Number of Households

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2.0

an

db

2.1
el o

-7

.0

7.1

-1

12
2 .0

.1

-1

17
7 .0

Monthly Income (in 10,000 Pesos)

.1

-2

22
2 .0

.1

-2

27
7 .0

.1

-3

2 .0

Examples: frequency distributions of

wages or salaries, use of electricity,
weights of adult male human beings,
family income

Skewed to the left

Ages at Death of Inventors in Makulay Barangay
12
10

N u m b er o f In ve n to rs

2.

8
6
4
2
0
45

1n

db

46
e lo

-5

51

-5

56

-6

Age at Death (in years)

61

-6

66

-7

71

an

da

bo

ve

Formulas
1.

2.

X Mo
SK
s
3( x Md )
SK
s

Interpretation of SK:
SK>0: positively skewed since the
mean > mode
SK < 0: negatively skewed since the
mean < mode
SK=0: symmetric since the mean =
mode

Example
Given the following scores: 80,92,
85, 87, 94, 83, 88, 91, 92, and
80.
Solution:
Mean =87.2, Median = 87.5,
s
= 5.09
SK=3(87.287.5)/5.09 = -0.18 <0

Kurtosis

Measures of kurtosis look at how sharply the

distribution rises to a peak and then drops away

MEASURE OF KURTOSIS
Peakedness or flatness
1.
2.
3.

Leptokurtic
Platykurtic
Mesokurtic

Formulas:

1 n
4
(Xi X )

n i 1
4
for ungroupeddata
4
S
1 n

4
X
X
f

(
)

i
i

f i i 1

4
for grouped data
4
S

Computational formula

Q 3 Q1
2
kurtosis ( K )
P90 P10
Interpretation:
K=3: mesokurtic
K>3: leptokurtic
K<3: platykurtic

Example:
Q3 = 91.75
P90 = 92.2

Q1 = 83.5
P10 = 80

91.75 83.5
2
(K )
0.34
92.2 80