2021

CHAPTER THREE
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
MATHEMATICAL AVERAGES (MEANS)
There are three types of means; namely, Arithmetic mean (simple and weighted), Geometric mean, and
Harmonic mean; but whenever mean is mentioned, it implies the simple arithmetic mean, whereas the other
means are identified by their specific names.
In unit 1, we have seen that the word “Population" in Statistics has quite different meaning from that of our
usual meaning. Similarly, the word “average" in Statistics means, in general, any measure of central location.
The Summation Notation
The symbol  (sigma) is often used for repetitive additions. Suppose that x 1, x2, , xn are numerical
measurements of variable X. The sum of all xi's where i goes from 1 up to n is symbolically given by:
n

x i  x1  x2    xn
i 1 ; i is called the index of summation.
Example 2.1: Find the sum and the sum of squares of: 3, 2, 5, 7.
Solution: Let, x1= 3, x2 = 2, x3 = 5, and x4 = 7.
4

x i  x1  x2  x3  x4  3  2  5  7  17
a) i 1 .
4

x
2 2 2 2 2
i  x1  x 2  x 3  x 4  3 2  2 2  5 2  7 2  87
b) i 1 .
Properties of summation: For any constant c,
n n n n

 ( xi  yi )   xi   yi  cxi  c  xi  c  nc
i) i 1 ; ii) i 1 ; iii) i 1
i 1 .
Some more properties can be derived from these (for any constant a):

  ( x a)   x  na
i i

 ( x  a)   x i 2a  xi  na 2
2 2
 i

1 Arithmetic Means (simple and weighted)

a) Simple Arithmetic Mean (S.A.M)
The mean of n observations is their sum divided by n.
I) The mean for ungrouped data
Suppose that x1, x2, , xn are n observed values in a sample of size n from a population of size N, n < N. Then,
the sample mean ( x , read as " x - bar") , and the population mean (  , read as “mu”) are defined as:
n

x  x    xn x i
x 1 2  i 1

n n
N

x  x2    x N x i
 1  i 1

N N

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Recall that x is a statistic used to estimate  , which is a parameter.

Example 2.2: Find the mean of the following marks obtained by
9 students in Statistics exam: 52, 75, 40, 70, 43, 40, 65, 35 and 48.
52  75    48
x  52, x2  75, , x9  49 , (using Formula 2.1)the mean is x  9
Solution: For n = 9 and 1
468

9  52 .*
Example 2.3: Find the mean of the scores (out of 35) of a population of 12 students in a test: 20, 23, 26, 17,
30, 10, 8, 34, 25, 28, 29 and 14.
12

x i
264
 i 1
  22
Solution: Since N = 12, and x1 = 20, x2 = 23,, x12 = 14, we have 12 12 .
For discrete data, the formula for the mean essentially remains the same. Let us consider a discrete set of data
where the values x1, x2, , xm assume corresponding frequencies f1, f2, , fm.
Then can be modified as follows.
Since there are f1 items with value x1, f2 items with value x2, and so on, fm values with value xm, the sum of all
the values is
x1  x1    x1   x2  x2    x2     xm  xm    xm 
 f 1 x1  f 2 x 2    f m x m   f x i i

The mean of discrete data is thus, given by:

m

fx
i 1
i i
x
n
Example 2.4: Find the mean of the following discrete sample data:
xi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
fi 5 9 12 17 14 10 6
Solution: Since n = 73, we construct the following table:

xi 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total

fi 5 9 12 17 14 10 6 73

f i xi 5 18 36 68 70 60 42 299

Therefore, 299/73 = 4.09 = x .

Combined Mean.
The combined mean for a combined set of data may be obtained from the separate means if their sample or
population sizes are given. Suppose that the combined set was formed by combining two sets of data with
means X 1 and X 2 with n and n observations, respectively. Then, the combined mean or grand mean is given
1 2
by:

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n1 x 1  n 2 x 2
xc 
n1  n 2
Example 2.5: If the mean weight of 50 women working in a factory is 48 kg and the mean weight for men is
also found to be 58kg, and the total number of workers in the factory was 125, find the mean weight of all
workers in the factory.
Solution: Let x 1  48kg , n1  50 , x 2  58kg , n2  75( 125  50) . Then,
50(48kg )  75(58kg )
xc 
50  75  54kg .
In general, if there are k-different groups of data with n1, n2, , nk numbers of observations and
x1 , x 2 ,  , x k means, respectively, then the combined mean is:
n x1  n2 x 2    nk x k  ni x i
xc  1 
n1  n2    nk  ni
II) Arithmetic Mean for Grouped Continuous Data
In case of grouped continuous data, the mid-points (class marks) of the various classes are taken as representatives of
their respective classes to estimate the mean with the assumption that the values in a class are concentrated around the
xi , the
center. Therefore, for grouped continuous data with m classes where the i th class has frequency fi and class mark
mean is given by Formula 2.3.
Example 2.6: Find the mean for the following continuous distribution.
C.I 1 - 5 6 - 10 11 – 15 16 – 20 21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35

Freq. 4 8 12 6 3 4 3

Solution: To calculate the mean, we have to construct the following table along with the class marks for each
class.
3 8 13 18 23 28 33 Total
Class mark ( xi )
Frequency (fi) 4 8 12 6 3 4 3 40
fx 12 64 156 108 69 112 99 620
i i

Thus, x = 620/40 = 15.5.

Exercise:
If the mean of the following data is 32, find the missing frequency“f”
Marks 0 – 9 10 – 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59
Number of students 5 15 20 F 20 10
Properties of the mean
n

 (x i  x)  0
1. The algebraic sum of deviations from the mean is always zero: i 1 .
n

 (x i  A) 2
2. The sum of squares of deviations from the mean is minimum. That is, i 1 is minimum
when ,A≠ X
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Correct values and wrong values

It sometimes happens that due to mistake in copying, certain wrong values are taken while calculating the
mean.In this case, to find the correct mean, deduct the wrong observation(s) and add in place the correct
observation(s) from the total sum, and divide this correct total by the number of observations.
Example 2.8:The mean of 100 observations was 65. Later on, it was discovered that oneobservation were
wrongly read as 40 and 8 instead of 80 .Find the correct mean.
b) Weighted Arithmetic Mean (or Weighted Mean)
 
The Weighted mean x w of a set of values x1 , x2 , , and x n whose relative importance (weight) is
w1 , w2 , , and w n , is given by:
w1 x1  w2 x2    wn xn  wi xi
xw  
w1  w2    wn  wi
Example 2.9: A typical example of the weighted mean is computation of your GPA. Suppose that a student
was registered for five courses with 4, 4, 3, 2 and 3 credit hours and she obtained grades B, A, C, D and A,
respectively. Find her GPA.
Solution: Here, the numerical equivalences of the grades are the values and the corresponding credit hours are
their respective weights. So, we have:

Values ( xi ) 3 4 2 1 4 Total
4 4 3 2 3 16
Weights ( wi )
wi xi 12 16 6 2 12 48
48
Then, GPA= 16 =3.0.
The Median
The median is found by arranging the data in an increasing or decreasing order of magnitude. We can consider
the following three cases in finding the median:
Case 1: Ungrouped data: also known as individual series. In such cases, the median is the value of the
middle term when the data are arranged in order of magnitude.
When the number of observations is odd, there will always be a single value in the middle of the arrayed data.
When n is even, however, there will be two middle observations, and the median is the mean of these two
values.
Let x1 , x2 , , xn be n ordered observations. Then, the median value is
th
 n  1
 
a) The  2  value if n is odd, and
th th
n n 
     1
2 2 
b) The 2 value if n is even.
Example 2.22: Find the median forthe following wage of 7 workers:
1080, 1100, 1120, 1150, 1160, 1200, 1400.
Solution: Since n = 7 is odd, we use Formula 2.14 (a), and the median is the 4th item in the array. i.e.median =
1150.

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Example 2.23: Find the median value of the population figures (in thousands) of 10 cities: 2000, 1180,
1785, 1500, 560, 782, 1200, 385, 1123, 222.
Solution: The arrayed data is: 222, 385, 560, 782, 1123, 1180, 1200, 1500, 1785, 2000, since
th th
n = 10 is even, the median is the mean of the 5 and 6 values; i.e.
1123  1180

Median 2  1151 .5 thousands.
Case 2:Grouped discrete
Only one more step, finding the less than cumulative frequencies, is added, because cumulative frequency
distribution is itself an arrangement of values in an order .
1. Find the less than cumulative frequencies.
2. Apply Formula
3. Look at the cumulative frequency and find that total which is either equal
 n  1
 
to or next higher to  2 
, and the corresponding value is the median.
Example 2.24: Find the median of the data given below.

xi 3 5 6 8 10
fi 4 4 7 9 5

Solution: First construct the cumulative frequency distribution:

xi fi Cum. Freq(  )
3 4 4
5 4 8
6 7 15
8 9 24
10 5 29
th
 n 1 th
   15
Since n = 29,  2  value, the median is 6.
Case 3: Grouped continuous
For continuous grouped data, the exact median cannot be obtained unless the original data has been retained.
Hence, the median has to be interpolated (or estimated) from the median class. An interpolation formula which
is based on the assumption that classes are uniformly distributed is:
w n 
Median  L    CF   ~x
f med  2 
Where: L= the lower class boundary of the median class; w = the class width of the median class; f med = the
frequency of the median class;
and CF  the cum. freq. corresponding to the class preceding the median class.

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That is, the sum of the frequencies of all classes lower than the median class. Where the median class is the
th
n
 
class which contains the  2  observation whether
n is odd or even, since the items have already lost their originality once they are grouped in to continuous
classes.
Example 2.26: For the following distribution, find the median.

Grade Frequency
40 – 49 5
50 – 59 18
60 – 69 27
70 – 79 15
80 – 89 6

Solution: Construct the less than cumulative frequency distribution as follows:

Freq.  f i ) 
C.B’s CF(<)
39.5 – 49.5 5 5
49.5 - 59.5 18 23
59.5 – 69.5 27 50
69.5 – 79.5 15 65
79.5 – 89.5 6 71

Since n = 71, 71/2 = 35.5, and the smallest CF greater than or equal to 35.5 is 50; thus, the median class is the
third class. And for this class,L = 59.5, w = 10, f med  27 , CF = 23. Then applying Formula , we get:
10
~  59.5  35.5  23
x 27  64.13 .
Example 2.27: Find the median of the following open-end distribution.

IQ Freq.
< 90 3
90 – 99 14

100 – 109 22
110 – 119 19
> 119 7

Solution: The less than cumulative frequency distribution is:

Class boundary Freq. CF

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< 89.5 3 3
89.5 - 99.5 14 17
99.5 - 109.5 22 39
109.5 - 119.5 19 58
> 119.5 7 65
Since n = 65, n/2 = 32.5, the median class is the third class; and
L = 99.5, w = 10, f med  22 , CF = 17. Then,
 99.5 
32.5  17 10
~
x 22  99.5  7.05  106.55 .
Merits of the median:
1) The median, like the mean, is unique.
2) It is not affected by extremely large or small values.
3) It can be used to average open-end distributions.
4) It is most appropriate for qualitative data, if they can be ranked.
Demerits of the median:
1) It is not based on all observations.
2) It can't be adapted for further mathematical treatment.
3) It is more affected by sampling fluctuations than the mean (less stable).
4) Not as popular as the mean.
THE MODE
The mode is another measure of central tendency. It is sometimes used to describe the center of a set of data..
The mode of a set of data is defined as the value with the highest frequency, and
which occurs more than once. It is denoted by x̂ , read as “x-hat”.
Mode for ungrouped data
The mode or the modal value of a raw data is simply obtained by locating the observation with the maximum
frequency (if there exist such a value).
Example 2.38: Find the mode(s) for each of the following sets of data:
(a) 3, 5, 5, 4, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 7. ( b) 3, 8, 7, 8, 4, 7, 8, 7, 4, 5.
( c) 3, 4, 6, 8, 7 ,2, 1, 9, 5, 12.
Solution: In order to detect the mode(s), it is better if we collect values of the same magnitude together.
a) 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8. The modal value is 5.
b) 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8. The modes are 7 and 8.
c) 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12. The mode is undefined.
From these examples, we note that a given set of data may have a single mode (called uni modal), it may have
two modes (called bimodal data), or it may have no mode at all (it does not exist or the mode is undefined).
Generally, if a set of data has two or more modes, then it is said to be multimodal.
Mode for discrete (ungrouped) data
In the case of discrete grouped data, the mode is determined just by inspection, i.e., by looking to that value (s)
having the highest frequency.
Example 2.39: Find the mode of the following data.

Size of shoes 28 29 30 31 32 33
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No of persons wearing 10 20 40 65 50 15
Solution: The modal shoe size is 31, since it has the maximum frequency.
Mode for grouped continuous data
In such cases, one can only determine the modal class easily: the class with the highest frequency. After
locating this class, the mode is interpolated using:
1
Mode  L  w
1   2
Where L = the lower class boundary of the modal class;
 1  f mod  f 1 ,  2  f mod  f 2 , w = the common class width
f 1 = frequency of the class preceding the modal class;
f 2 = frequency of the class succeeding the modal class; and
fmod = frequency of the modal class.
Note: While applying Formula this the following conditions are assumed:
1. The data is uni-modal (i.e., no two classes have equal frequency);
2. All the classes have the same (common) class width; and
3. The modal class corresponds with the class with the maximum frequency.
Example 2.40:Calculate the modal age for the age distribution of 228 housewives.

Class Interval Number of women

Age (in years)
15 – 19 6
20 – 24 19
25 – 29 50
30 – 34 57
35 – 39 48
40 – 44 27
45 – 49 21
Total 228

Solution: By inspection, the mode lies in the fourth class,

where L =29.5, f = 57, f =50, f =48, w = 5, and  1  57  50  7,  2  57  48  9 .
mod 1 2
7
x̂  29.5  5
Therefore, 79  29.5  2.2  31.7 years.

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