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 In God we trust, all others must bring data.
(William Edwards Deming)

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 Measures of Central Location
The term central location relates to the way
quantitative data tend to cluster around some
middle or central value. Measures of central
location attempt to find a typical of central
value that describes the data set.

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 The mean
❖The arithmetic mean is the primary measure
of central location. Generally, we refer to the
arithmetic mean as simply mean or average.
❖We calculate the mean by adding all values in
our data set and then divide the result by the
number of observations.
❖The mathematical formula for mean differs
slightly depending whether you’re referring to
the mean of the sample or the mean of the
population.
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 Properties of Mean
❖A set of data has only one mean
❖Applied for interval and ratio data
❖All values in the data set are included
❖Very useful in comparing two or more data
sets.
❖Affected by the extreme small or large values
on a data set
❖Cannot be computed for the data in a
frequency distribution with an open-ended
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 The Mean
 x̄ x bar for a sample and

µ mew for a population

 Sample mean
σ 𝑥𝑖
𝑥lj =
𝑛
 Population mean
σ 𝑥𝑖
𝜇=
𝑁
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 Example
❖The demand for bottled water increases
during hurricane season in Florida. The
number of 1-gallon bottles of water sold for a
random sample of n = 12 hours in one store
during hurricane season is:
60 84 65 67 75 72 80 85 63
82 70 75
Calculate the sample mean.
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 Solution
The average or mean hourly number of 1-gallon bottles
of water demanded is found as follows:
σ 𝑥𝑖
𝑥ҧ =
𝑛
60 + 84 + 65 + 67 + 75 + 72 + 80 + 85 + 63 + 82 + 70 + 75
=
12
= 73.17

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 Example 2
Find the population mean of the ages of 9
middle-management employees of a certain
company. The ages are:
53 45 59 48 54 46 51 58 55

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 Solution
෌𝑥𝑖 53+45+59+48+54+46+51+58+55
𝜇= = = 52.11
𝑁 9
The mean population age of middle-
management employee is 52.11

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 The mean for grouped data
The above two formulas are applied only for
ungrouped data. In many instances, we access
data that are in the form of a frequency
distribution or grouped data. This is especially
true of secondary data, such as data we obtain
from government publications. When data are
grouped or aggregated, the formulas for the
mean must be modified.

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 Formula
𝛴𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖
❖𝑥ҧ =
𝑛
෌ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖
❖𝜇 =
𝑁
Where mi and fi are the midpoint and the
frequency of the ith class, respectively.

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 Example
Using the example provided in on a Travel
Agency. Determine the mean of the frequency
distribution on the ages of 50 people taking
travel tours. Class Limits Frequency
18 – 26 3
27 - 35 5
36 - 44 9
45 – 53 14
54 – 62 11
63 – 71 6
72 - 80 2
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 Solution Get the midpoint

Class Frequency mi mifi

Limits
18 – 26 3 22 66
27 - 35 5 31 155
Get the product of
36 - 44 9 40 360
the midpoint and the
45 – 53 14 49 686 frequency
54 – 62 11 58 638
63 – 71 6 67 402
72 - 80 2 76 152
Get the sum
Total 50 2,459

𝛴𝑚 𝑓𝑖 2,459
𝑥ҧ = 𝑛𝑖 = 50 = 49.18 thus, the mean age of people taking travel tours
is 49.18 years old.

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 The weighted mean
❖The weighted mean allows you to assign more
weight to certain values and less weight to
others.
❖It is useful when various classes or groups
contribute differently to the total
❖It is found by multiplying each value by its
corresponding weight and dividing by the
sum of weights

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 Formula
෌𝑤𝑖 𝑥𝑖
𝑥ҧ𝑤 =
𝛴𝑤𝑖
Example: an airline company recorded the
number of no-shows (people who fail to arrive
at the gate on time to board a plane) for the
past 120 flights. The frequencies are shown in
the table below. We would like to calculate the
average number of no-show per flight.

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Number of no- Number of
shows flights
σ 𝑤𝑖 𝑥𝑖
0 37 𝑥ҧ𝑤 =
𝛴𝑤𝑖
1 31 37 0 + 31 1 + ⋯ + (4)(5)
=
2 20 37 + 31 + ⋯ + 4
187
3 16 𝑥ҧ𝑤 = 120 = 1.56 passengers.

4 12
5 4

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 The Median
The next measure of central location that we
will explore is the median. The median is the
value in the data set for which half the
observations are higher and half of the
observations are lower.

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 Properties of the Median
❖It’s unique, there is only one median for a set of
data
❖It is found by arranging the set of data from
lowest to highest (or highest to lowest) and
getting the value of the middle observation
❖It is not affected by the extreme values
❖It can be computed for an open ended frequency
distribution
❖It can be applied for ordinal, interval and ratio
data.
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 The Median
❖If n is odd, the median is the middle ranked
value
❖If n is even, then the median is the average of
the two middle ranked values.
❖The median will be the values located in the:
Median (rank value) =0.5 𝑛 + 1 𝑡ℎ

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 Example
Find the median of the ages of 9 middle-
management employees of a certain company.
The ages are:
53 45 59 48 54 46 51 58 55
Solution:
Step 1: sort the data in ascending of descending
order.
45 46 48 51 53 54 55 58 59
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Step 2: select the middle rank
Median (rank value) = 0.5(9+1) = 5
Step 3: Identify the median in the data set.
45 46 48 51 53 54 55 58 59

5th
Hence, the median age is 53 years

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 Example 2
The following data set represents ten quiz
scores for a particular statistics student:
86 96 95 74 83 92 70 88 81
91
Identify the median quiz score.

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 The Median for grouped data
Using the example provided in on a Travel
Agency. Determine the median of the
frequency distribution on the ages of 50 people
taking travel tours.
Class Limits Frequency
18 – 26 3
27 – 35 5
36 – 44 9
45 – 53 14
54 – 62 11
63 – 71 6
72 – 80 2
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 LB=
45+44/2 𝑛 50
=44.5 Mid-value = 2 = = 25
2

cf
Class f cf
Limits
18 – 26 3 3
27 – 35 5 8
i is the class width or the class size
36 – 44 9 17
45 – 53 14 31 Median class
54 – 62 11 42
63 – 71 6 48
f
72 - 80 2 50
Total 50

𝑛 50
−𝐶𝑓 2
−17
Median = 𝐿𝐵 + 2
𝑖 = 44.5+ 9 = 49.64
𝑓 14
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 The Mode
The last measure of central location we’ll
discuss in this chapter is the mode, which gets
the least attention when compared with the
mean and the median. The mode is simply the
value that appears most often in a data set.

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 Properties of Mode
❖It is found by locating the most frequently
occurring value
❖The easiest average to compute
❖There can be more than one mode or even no
mode in any given data set
❖It is not affected by the extreme small or large
values
❖It can be applied for nominal, ordinal,
interval and ratio data.
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 Example
The following data represent the total sales of
PS5 from a sample of 10 gaming centres for the
month of August: 15, 17, 10, 12, 13, 10, 14, 10, 8,
and 9.
Find the mode
Solution:
Ascending order of the data:
8, 9, 10, 10, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17
Therefore the mode is 10
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 Example 2
Consider the following data set which indicates
the number of students absent from the first
ten classes at UniSey
2, 0, 1, 3, 1, 4, 2, 0, 1, 2
Find the mode.
Solution
0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4
The modes are 1 student and 2 students because
both values appear three times.
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Mode for grouped data
Using the example provided in on a Travel Agency.
Determine the mode of the frequency distribution
on the ages of 50 people taking travel tours.
Class Limits Frequency
18 – 26 3
27 – 35 5
36 – 44 9
45 – 53 14
54 – 62 11
63 – 71 6
72 – 80 2
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 i is the class width

LB = 45 – 0.5 = Class Frequency

44.5 f (before)
Limits
18 – 26 3 f (of the modal
27 – 35 5 class)

36 – 44 9
Modal class
Δ1 = f – f(before)
45 – 53 14
= 14 – 9 = 5 54 – 62 11
Δ2 = f – f(after) 63 – 71 6
= 14 – 11 = 3 f (after)
72 – 80 2
Δ1 5
Mode = 𝐿𝐵 + 𝑖 = 44.5 + 9 = 50.13
Δ1 +Δ2 5+3
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 Whatever exist at all exist in some amount…
and whatever exists in some amount can be
measured
- Edward L. Thorndike

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 THANK YOU

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