MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

In statistics, a central tendency (or measure of central tendency) is a central or

typical value for a probability distribution. It may also be called a center or
location of the distribution. Colloquially, measures of central tendency are often
called averages. The term central tendency dates from the late 1920s.

The most common measures of central tendency are the arithmetic mean,
the median and the mode. A central tendency can be calculated for either a
finite set of values or for a theoretical distribution, such as the normal distribution.
Occasionally authors use central tendency to denote "the tendency of
quantitative data to cluster around some central value."
The central tendency of a distribution is typically contrasted with
its dispersion or variability; dispersion and central tendency are the often
characterized properties of distributions. Analysis may judge whether data has a
strong or a weak central tendency based on its dispersion.
Mean -The most commonly used measure of central tendency is the arithmetic
mean. It is called the mean or the computed average. It is defined to be the
sum of the values of a group of items divided by the number of such items. The
mean of a sample of scores on a variable x is symbolized by x (x-bar) and the
mean of a population is called the µ (mu). Most of the time, researchers are
forced to estimate µ from x, since they cannot measure every item in the
population.

-The mean of an ungrouped set of data is equal to the sum of the

quantities, divided by the number of quantities under consideration.

Median- the median (symbol Md) of a set of data is a measure of central

tendency that occupies the middle position in an array of values. It is the
number that divides the bottom 50% of the data from the top 50%, that is, half
the data items fall below the median and half are above that value. In an odd
number of items, the median is simply the middle value. If n is even, the median
is the average of the two middle data values in its ordered list.

-is the middle value on a set of quantities and separates an ordered set of
data into two equal parts, half of the quantities are found above the
median and the other half is found below it. The symbol x will be used to
denote the median.
Mode-is the quantity with the most number of frequency.
Unimodal distribution-one mode
Bimodal distribution-two modes trimodal-three modes
Measures
The following may be applied to one-dimensional data. Depending on the circumstances, it may be
appropriate to transform the data before calculating a central tendency. Examples are squaring the
values or taking logarithms. Whether a transformation is appropriate and what it should be, depend
heavily on the data being analyzed.
Arithmetic mean or simply, mean
the sum of all measurements divided by the number of observations in the data set.
Median
the middle value that separates the higher half from the lower half of the data set. The
median and the mode are the only measures of central tendency that can be used for ordinal
data, in which values are ranked relative to each other but are not measured absolutely.
Mode
the most frequent value in the data set. This is the only central tendency measure that can
be used with nominal data, which have purely qualitative category assignments.
Geometric mean
the nth root of the product of the data values, where there are n of these. This measure is
valid only for data that are measured absolutely on a strictly positive scale.
Harmonic mean
the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals of the data values. This measure too
is valid only for data that are measured absolutely on a strictly positive scale.
Weighted arithmetic mean
an arithmetic mean that incorporates weighting to certain data elements.
Truncated mean or trimmed mean
the arithmetic mean of data values after a certain number or proportion of the highest and
lowest data values have been discarded.
Interquartile mean
a truncated mean based on data within the interquartile range.
Midrange
the arithmetic mean of the maximum and minimum values of a data set.
Midhinge
the arithmetic mean of the first and third quartiles.
Trimean
the weighted arithmetic mean of the median and two quartiles.
Winsorized mean
an arithmetic mean in which extreme values are replaced by values closer to the median.
Any of the above may be applied to each dimension of multi-dimensional data, but the results may
not be invariant to rotations of the multi-dimensional space. In addition, there are the
Geometric median
which minimizes the sum of distances to the data points. This is the same as the median
when applied to one-dimensional data, but it is not the same as taking the median of each
dimension independently. It is not invariant to different rescaling of the different dimensions.
Quadratic mean (often known as the root mean square)
useful in engineering, but not often used in statistics. This is because it is not a good
indicator of the center of the distribution when the distribution includes negative values.
Simplicial depth
the probability that a randomly chosen simplex with vertices from the given distribution will
contain the given center
The word data refers to information that is collected and recorded. It can be in form of

numbers, words, measurements and much more.

There are two types of data and these are qualitative data and quantitative data. The

difference between the two types of data is that quantitative data is used to describe

numerical information. For instance, the measurement of temperature would fall under

this kind of data.

On the other hand, qualitative data is used to describe information in words. After

collecting data, it needs to be organized hence the need to separate grouped data from

ungrouped data. Both are useful forms of data but the difference between them is that

ungrouped data is raw data. This means that it has just been collected but not sorted

into any group or classes. On the other hand, grouped data is data that has been

organized into groups from the raw data.

What is Grouped Data?

As mentioned above, grouped data is the type of data which is classified into groups

after collection. The raw data is categorized into various groups and a table is created.

The primary purpose of the table is to show the data points occurring in each group. For

instance, when a test is done, the results are the data in this scenario and there are many

ways to group this data. For example, the number of students that scored above each 20

mark can be recorded.

Alternatively, the grades can be used. For example, a 90-100 all the way to F 0-59 with

each category showing how many students are in each category. Histograms and

frequency table are best used to show and interpret grouped data. Here is an example
 Grouping of data has the following advantages:

 Helps in improving the efficiency of estimations.

 Allows for greater balancing of statistical power of tests of the differences between strata
by analyzing equal number from strata.
 Irrelevant subpopulations are ignored while the significant ones are focused on.

What is Ungrouped Data?

Ungrouped data which is also known as raw data is data that has not been placed in any

group or category after collection. Data is categorized in numbers or characteristics

therefore, the data which has not been put in any of the categories is ungrouped. For

example, when conducting census and you want to analyze how many women above the

age of 45 are in a particular area, you first need to know how many people reside in that

area.

The number of individuals residing in that area is ungrouped data or raw information

because nothing has been categorized. We can therefore conclude that ungrouped data

is data used to show information on an individual member of a sample or population.

Some of the advantages of ungrouped data are as follows;

 Most people can easily interpret it.

 When the sample size is small, it is easy to calculate the mean, mode and median.
 It does not require technical expertise to analyze it.

Differences between Grouped Data and

Ungrouped Data
 Classification of Grouped Data vs. Ungrouped Data Grouped data is data that has
been organized in classes after its analysis. Examples include how many bags of maize
collected during the rainy season were bad. On the other hand, ungrouped data is data
which does not fall in any group. It is still raw data.
 Preference of Grouped Data vs. Ungrouped Data

When collecting data, ungrouped data is preferred because the information is still in its

original form. It has not been tampered with by classification or subdivision. However,

when analyzing it and drawing graphs, grouped data is preferred because it is simple to

interpret.

 Accuracy of Grouped Data vs. Ungrouped Data

When calculating the means of grouped and ungrouped data, there will be a variation.

The mean of grouped data is preferred because it is more accurate as compared to the

mean of ungrouped data. The mean of ungrouped data may lead to wrong manipulation

of the median therefore it is considered inefficient in most cases.

 Representation of Grouped Data vs. Ungrouped Data

Frequency tables are used to show the information of grouped data whereas in the case

of ungrouped data, the information appears like a big list of of numbers. This is due to

the fact that the information is still raw.

 Summary

Grouped data is data that has been organized into a frequency distribution whereas

ungrouped data has not been summarized in any way.