Class Notes

Class: XI Topic: Measures of Central Tendency

Subject: ECONOMICS

A central tendency is a single figure that represents the whole mass of data.
The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of central tendency, but under different conditions,
some measures of central tendency become more appropriate to use than others.
Arithmetic mean or mean is the number which is obtained by adding the values of all the items of a
series and dividing the total by the number of items.

Computation of Mean-Methods with formulae

Types of Series Direct Method Shortcut Method Step deviation Method

Individual Series Where

Where Where
A=assumed mean , C= Common factor
X= Observations A=assumed mean
d=X-A
N=No. of d=X-A
C
Observations N=No. of Observations
N=No. of Observations

Discrete series Where Where Where

X= Observations A=assumed mean A=assumed mean , C= Common factor
F=frequency N=No. d=X-A d=X-A ,N=No. of Observations
of Observations N=No. of Observations C

Where
Continuous Series X= Observations Where Where
F=frequency of A=assumed mean A=assumed mean , C= Common factor
,m=midpoint of each d=X-A d=X-A ,N=No. of Observations
class N=No. of Observations C
N=No. of
Observations

Properties of average
 When the difference between all the items is same (and the number of terms is odd), then the

average is equal to the middle term. The average of the first and last term would also be the
average of all the terms of the sequence.

 If x is added to all the items, then the average increases by x.

 If every item is divided by x, then the average also gets divided by x.

  If x is subtracted from all the items, then the average decreases by x.
 If every item is multiplied by x, then the average also gets multiplied by x.

Median is the middle value of the series when arranged in order of the magnitude.
Calculation of Median :
Individual series

a.In odd series -Marks :3, 13, 7, 5, 21, 23, 39, 23, 40, 23, 14, 12, 56, 23, 29

When we put those numbers in order we have: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39, 40,
56There are fifteen numbers.

Our middle is the eighth number: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39,40, 56The median
value of this set of numbers is 23

b.In even series - Marks : 3, 13, 7, 5, 21, 23, 23, 40, 23, 14, 12, 56, 23, 29

When we put those numbers in order we have: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56

There are now fourteen numbers and so we don't have just one middle number, we have a pair of
middle numbers: 3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56

In this example the middle numbers are 21 and 23. To find the value halfway between them, add them
together and divide by 2: 21 + 23 = 44 then 44 ÷ 2 = 22 So the Median in this example is 22.

Discrete series

Steps to Calculate:

(1) Arrange the data in ascending or descending order.

(2) Find cumulative frequencies.

(3) Find the value of the middle item by using the formula

Median = Size of (N+1)/2th item

(4) Find that total in the cumulative frequency column which is equal to (N + 1)/2th or nearer to that
value.

(5) Locate the value of the variable corresponding to that cumulative frequency This is the value of
Median.

Items 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Frequeny 2 5 1 3 12 0 5 7
Cumulativ 2 7 8 11 23 23 28 35
e
frequency
M=Value of (N+1)/2th item.=Value of (35+1)/2th item

= Value of 18th item

So Median = 12 (since total in the cumulative frequency column which is equal to (N + 1)/2th or
nearer to that value is 23. the value of the variable corresponding to that cumulative frequency is the
value of Median which is 12 here.)
Continuous Series:

In this case cumulative frequencies is taken and then the value from the class-interval in which (N/2)th
term lies is taken as Median class. Then use the formula to find Meidan

M=L +{N/2- Cf } x i
f L is lower limit of class interval in which frequency lies or median class,
Cf is the cumulative frequency of the class preceeding the median class, f the frequency of the median
class and i is the length of class interval.

Example: The following distribution represents the number of minutes spent per week by a group of
teenagers in going to the movies. Find the median number of minutes spent per by the teenagers in
going to the movies.
Number of minutes per week Number of teenagers
0-100 26
100-200 32
200-300 65
300-400 75
400-500 60
500-600 42
Solution:
Let us construct the less than type cumulative frequency distributes on.
Number of minutes per Number of teenagers Cumulative
week (Frequency) Frequency
(less than type)

0 -100 26 26
100-200 32
200-300 65 58
300-400 75 123
400-500 60 198
500-600 42 258
300
Here, N/2=300/2=150
Here, the cumulative frequency just greater than or equal to 150 is 198.So Median class = 300-400
i.e.the class containing the median value. therefore using the formula for median we have,

Median =300 +{300/2-123} x 100

75 where, 300= lower class boundary of the median class),
Median =336 N =300 (total frequency), c.f =123 f=75 (frequency of
the median class),and c =100 (class width of the median
class).
So, the median number of minutes spent per week by this group of 300 teenagers in going to the
movies is 336

Measure Individual Series Discrete Series Continuous Series

Size of item Size of item Size of item Size of item Formula

Median

Calculation of Mode
Mode for Individual Series

In case of individual series, we just have to inspect the item that occurs most frequently in the
distribution. Further, this item is the mode of the series.

Mode for Discrete Series

In discrete series, we have values of items with their corresponding frequencies. In essence, here the
value of the item with the highest frequency will be the mode for the distribution.

Mode for Continuous Series

Lastly, for continuous series, the method for mode calculation is somewhat different. Here we have to
find a modal class. The modal class is the one with the highest frequency value. The class just before
the modal class is called the pre-modal class. Whereas, the class just after the modal class is known as
the post-modal class. Lastly, the following formula is applied for calculation of mode:

Mode = L + (F1- F0) x h

2F1-F0- F2
Here, L= The lower limit of the modal class

F1= Frequency corresponding to the modal class,

F2 = Frequency corresponding to the post-modal class,

and F0 = Frequency corresponding to the pre-modal class

Solved Illustration
Question: Calculate mode for the following data:

Class Interval 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60

Frequency 3 10 15 10 2

Answer: As the frequency for class 30-40 is maximum, this class is the modal class. Classes 20-30 and 40-50
are pre-modal and post-modal classes respectively. The mode is:

Mode= 30 + 10×[(15-10)/(2×15-10-10)]= 30+ 5= 35

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