Spearmans Rank Order Correlation Coefficient

In this lesson, we will learn how to measure the coefficient of correlation for two sets of ranking. The coefficient of correlation, r, measures the strength of association or correlation between two sets of data that can be measured. Sometimes, the data is not measurable but can only be ordered, as in ranking. For example, two students can be asked to rank toast, cereals, and dim sum in terms of preference. They are asked to assign rank 1 to their favourite and rank 3 to the choice of breakfast that they like least. We will use Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Coefficient to calculate the strength of association between the rankings produced by these two students. Steps To Calculate Spearmans Rank Correlation Coefficient Assign ranks 1, 2, 3, ..., n to the value of each variable. Ranking can be descending in order or ascending in order. However, both data sets should use the same ordering. For each pair of values (x, y), we will calculate d = rank x rank y. We call the difference d. We calculate Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Coefficient as follows:

rs = 1

6 d2

n n2 1

The textbook gives the equation as: t = 1 6 d2

n n2 1

 Example: The following is a small selection of countries ranked according to the Human Development Index (HDI) and Income per capita (GDP per capita at PPP in USD). These data came from UNDP-HDR 2003. [Note: Income rank is a rank with respect to these ten countries and does not correspond to the GNP per capita ranking provided by UNDP.] Country Norway Iceland Sweden Australia Netherlands Belgium United States Canada Japan Switzerland Income rank (x) 3 2 10 8 5 7 1 6 9 4 HDI rank d = rank x (y) - rank y 1 2 2 0 3 7 4 4 5 0 6 1 7 -6 8 -2 9 0 10 -6 d2 4 0 49 16 0 1 36 4 0 36

d = 146
2

We have included column d and column d2 in the above table. The Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Coefficient is:

rs = 1

6(146) 10 102 1

rs = 0.115

What Does The Value Tell Us?

The Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient is actually a derivation of the correlation coefficient. Therefore, the values of rs must be between -1 and +1 [-1 < rs < 1]. The value in our previous example indicates that there is little or no correlation between these two rankings. In reality, the HDI ranking is correlated to the Income ranking but to see that we have to use the complete rankings from UNDP and not a small selection as used in the example. The difference is because the Income rank used here is actually a ranking based on the ten countries within the sample. Thus, within these ten countries, their HDI ranks have little association with their Income ranks. Means that the rankings have perfect positive association. Their rankings are exactly alike. Means that the rankings have no correlation or association. Means that the rankings have perfect negative association. They have exact reverse ranking to each other.

rs = +1 rs = 0 rs = -1

Is The Spearman's Rank Value Above Significant?

We need to compare the obtained value of rs = 0.115 with the values in the Spearman's Rank Table. This table is for testing the hypothesis that a population correlation coefficient, r, is zero. The values in this table are the minimum values of r from a sample that need to be reached for Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient value to be significant at the level shown.

Spearmans Rank Table

Sample size (n) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 p = 0.05 1.0000 0.9000 0.8286 0.7143 0.6429 0.6000 0.5636 0.5364 0.5035 0.4825 0.4637 0.4464 0.4294 0.4142 0.4014 0.3912 0.3805 0.3701 0.3608 0.3528 0.3443 0.3369 0.3306 0.3242 0.3180 0.3118 0.3063 0.2640 0.2353 0.2144 0.1982 0.1852 0.1745 0.1654 p = 0.025 1.0000 0.8857 0.7857 0.7381 0.7000 0.6485 0.6182 0.5874 0.5604 0.5385 0.5214 0.5029 0.4877 0.4716 0.4596 0.4466 0.4364 0.4252 0.4160 0.4070 0.3977 0.3901 0.3828 0.3755 0.3685 0.3624 0.3128 0.2791 0.2545 0.2354 0.2201 0.2074 0.1967 p = 0.01 1.0000 0.9429 0.8929 0.8333 0.7833 0.7455 0.7091 0.6783 0.6484 0.6264 0.6036 0.5824 0.5662 0.5501 0.5351 0.5218 0.5091 0.4975 0.4862 0.4757 0.4662 0.4571 0.4487 0.4401 0.4325 0.4251 0.3681 0.3293 0.3005 0.2782 0.2602 0.2453 0.2327

 In our example, we have a sample size of ten and according to the table, to achieve a significance level of 5% (p = 0.05), the rs value has to be at least 0.5636. Our obtained figure of rs = 0.115 is smaller than 0.5636, so we conclude that our Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient is not statistically different from zero. Therefore, it is not significant.
Exercises:

1. Show that for the following data the rs = +1 (perfect positive association) between the ranking of these two magazines. Best school is given rank 1. Business School A B C D E F G H I J Magazine One 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Magazine Two 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2. Show that for the following data the rs = -1 (perfect negative association) between the ranking of these two judges. Best ice cream is given rank 1. Ice cream A B C D E F G H I J Judge One 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Judge Two 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 3. Jane and Adnan were asked to rank their favourite vacation spots. Here are their rankings: Sapporo Macau Phuket Bali Lijiang Jane 2 4 1 5 3 Adnan 3 2 1 5 4 (a) Calculate the Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient. (b) Is your Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient significant? Answers: r = 0.7 but not significant at 5% level.

 Reference: Crawshaw, J. and J. Chambers. A Concise Course in Advanced Level Statistics with worked examples. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2001.