Alpha University Borama

Departments of Nursing and

midwifery, Laboratory and
Pharmacy
Course title: Biostatistics
 Module Five :
Measurement of
Central
tendency
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this Unit, students will be able
to:
 Introduction
 Objectives of measuring central tendency
 mean
 Median
 Mode
 The mean for grouped Data
 The median for grouped Data
 The mode for grouped Data 3
 Introduction
• Measures of average are
also called measures of
central tendency and
include the mean, median,
mode, and midrange.
 Cont---
Measure of Central Tendency is a single value
that summarizes a set of data. It locates the
center of the values.
Also known as measure of location or average.
Central tendency is defined as “the statistical
measure that identifies a single value as
representative of an entire distribution. "It aims
to provide an accurate description of the entire
data.
Objectives of measuring central
tendency
There are two main objectives of
measuring central tendency.
1. To get one single value that
describes the characteristics of entire
sets of data
2. To facilitate comparison
• There are three main measures of central
tendency
1. Mean 2. Median 3. Mode.
MEAN:
The MEAN of a set of values or measurements
is the sum of all the measurements divided by
the number of measurements in the set.
The mean is the most popular and widely used.
It is sometimes called the arithmetic
Average.
Ungrouped Data
Cont--
 Example
• For example, take this list of
numbers: 10,10,20,40,70.
The mean (average) is found by
adding all of the numbers together
and dividing by the number of items
in the set: 10 + 10 + 20 + 40 + 70 / 5
= 30.
 Exercise
 Days Off per Year
• The data represent the number of
days off per year for a sample of
individuals selected from nine
different countries. Find the mean.
• 20, 26, 40, 36, 23, 42, 35, 24, 30
 Median
• The median is the value which divides the data set into
two equal parts.
• The middle value in the set.
 Steps in computing the median;
Step 1: Arrange the data in order.
Step 2: Select the middle point.
Step 3: If the number of values is odd, the median will be the
middle value when all values are arranged in order of
magnitude.
Step 4: If the number of values in a set is even, then the
median is the sum of the two middle values, divided by 2.
 Cont--
• Median: The midpoint of the
values after they have been
ordered from the smallest to
the largest, or the largest to the
smallest.
 Example
• Calculate
1 the medium of this
biostatistics exam result?
65 50 85 46 70 75 60
80 90
Solution:
 First arrange the sample in
ascending order
46 50 60 65 70 75 80 85
90
 Since n = 9, it is Odd number
 So, the medium is the 5th number
which is 70 14
Example 2
• Calculate the medium of this
Pharmacology exam result?
65 50 85 46 70 75 60 80 90
40
Solution:
•First arrange the sample in ascending
order
40 46 50 60 65 70 75 80 85
90
•Since n =10, it is even number
• So, the medium is the 5th and 6th 15
 Exercise
1. Six customers purchased
these numbers of
magazines: 1, 7, 3, 2, 3, 4.
Find the median
 Mode
The MODE, denoted Mo, is the
value which occurs most frequently
in a set of measurements or values.
For example in
the series 6, 5, 3, 4, 3, 7, 8, 9, 5, 5, 4
we notice that 5 occurs most
frequently, therefore,, 5 is the mode.
 Cont--
• The value that occurs most often in a data set
is called the mode.
• A data set that has only one value that occurs
with the greatest frequency is said to be
unimodal.
• If a data set has two values that occur with
the same greatest frequency, both values are
considered to be the mode and the data set is
said to be bimodal.
• If a data set has more than two
values that occur with the same
greatest frequency, each value is
used as the mode, and the data set is
said to be multimodal. When no
data value occurs more than once,
the data set is said to have no mode.
A data set can have more than one
mode or no mode at all.
 Example
• Find the mode for the number of coal
employees per county for 10 selected counties
in southwestern Pennsylvania.
110, 731, 1031, 84, 20, 118, 1162, 1977, 103,
752
Solution
Since each value occurs only once, there is no
mode.
 Example
104 104 104 104 104
107 109 109 109 110
109 111 112 111 109
Find the Mode
Solution
Since the values 104 and 109 both occur 5
times, the modes are 104 and 109. The data
set is said to be bimodal.
 Class Activity
A sample of five managers
received the following bonus last
year ($000): 14.0, 15.0, 17.0,
16.0, 15.0
Find the mean, Median, Mode
 Cont--
 Mr. Ahmed collects the data on the
ages of Public health Lectures in
Alpha University Borama, and his
study produces the following:
38 35 28 36 35 33 40
• Calculate the Mean. Median. Mode
 Cont--
• Scores of 15 students in Biostatistics quiz
consist of 25 Questions . The highest
score is 25 and the lowest score is 10.
Here are the scores: 25, 20, 18, 18, 17,
15, 15, 15, 14, 14, 13, 12, 12, 10, 10.
Find the mean ,median and mode in
the following scores.
The Midrange
 Example
• Find the midrange.
2, 3, 6, 8, 4, 1

Solution
MR=1+8/2=9/2=4.5
Hence, the midrange is 4.5.
 Exercise
• Find the midrange of data . The
bonuses in millions of dollars are
18.0, 14.0, 34.5, 10, 11.3, 10, 12.4, 10
 Grouped data

Grouped data are the data or scores that are

arranged in a frequency distribution.
Frequency: It is the number of occurrences of
a item. It is the number of times a particular
value is repeated is called frequency of that
value.
Frequency distribution: The arrangement of
the data into class intervals showing the
frequency of each class is known as frequency
distribution.
 Grouped Data (The Arithmetic Mean)

The mean of a sample of data organized in a

frequency distribution is computed by the
following formula:
Xf Xf
X 
f n
Where,
X : Class marks or Mid points of the class
f : Frequency in the class
 Example

 find the mean

Score Frequency(f) Midpoint(X) fX
11--15 3 13 39
16--20 4 18 72
21--25 7 23 161
26--30 3 28 84
31--35 2 33 66
36--40 1 38 38
Total 20 460

Xf Xf
X  
f n
=460/20 =23
 Class Activity
find the mean from following distribution
table:
class interval Frequency (F) Midpoint(X) FX
10 – 19 2

20 – 29 7

30 – 39 17

40 – 49 29

50 – 59 29
 Class Activity
find the mean from following distribution
table:
class interval Frequency (F) Midpoint(X) FX
0–2 3

2–4 4

4–6 5

6–8 3

8 – 10 1
 Group Data (The Median)
The median of a sample of data organized in a frequency
distribution is computed by the following formula:

 N 
  f c 
Median L   2  c
 fm 
 
Where,  
L : lower limit of the median class
fc : cumulative frequency pre-median class
fm : frequency of the median class
c : class interval.
N : total number of observation
 Finding the Median Class
To determine the median class for grouped data:
Construct a cumulative frequency distribution.
Divide the total number of data values by 2.
Determine which class will contain this value.
For example, if n=50, 50/2 = 25, then
determine which class will contain the 25th
value – That will be the median class.
 Example
Class interval Frequency (F) CF

10 – 19 2 2

20-29 7 9

30-39 17 26

40-49 29 55

50-59 29 84
 Class Activity
Class interval Frequency (F) CF

0 – 20 17

20-40 28

40-60 32

60-80 24

80-100 19
 Group Data (The Mode)
• The mode for grouped data is the
modal class. The modal class is the
class with the largest frequency.

• The formula used to calculate the

Mode from grouped data is:
Formula
 Example
Class interval Frequency (F)

0 – 10 2

10-20 5

20-30 6

30-40 5

40-50 2
 Class Activity
Class interval Frequency (F)

125 – 130 7

130-135 14

135-140 10

140-145 10

145-150 9
41