MERITS AND DEMERITS OF ARITHEMETIC MEAN

 ARITHEMETIC MEAN RIGIDLY DEFINED BY

ALGEBRIC FORMULA
 It is easy to calculate and simple to understand
 IT BASED ON ALL OBSERVATIONS AND IT CAN BE
REGARDED AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GIVEN
DATA
 It is capable of being treated mathematically and hence it is
widely used in statistical analysis.
 Arithmetic mean can be computed even if the detailed
distribution is not known but some of the observation and
number of the observation are known.
 It is least affected by the fluctuation of sampling
 DEMERITS OF ARITHMETIC MEAN

 It can neither be determined by inspection or by

graphical location
 Arithmetic mean cannot be computed for
qualitative data like data on intelligence honesty
and smoking habit etc
 It is too much affected by extreme observations
and hence it is not adequately represent data
consisting of some extreme point
 Arithmetic mean cannot be computed when class
intervals have open ends
 MERITS OF MEDIAN
 It is easy understand and to easy to calculate
 It can easy to find out by inspection
 Median can be determined even when class
intervals have open ends
 It is not much affected by extreme observations
and also interdependent of range or dispersion of
the data
 Median can also be located graphically
 It is only suitable average when the data are
qualitative & it is possible to rank various items
according to qualitative charecteristics
 Merits of mode
 It is easy to understand and easy to calculate.
In many cases it can be located just by
inspection
 Like mean or median it is not affected by
extreme observations
 It can be determined even if distribution has
open end classes
 It is value around which more concentrations
of observations and hence the best
representative of data
 Demerits of mode
 It is not based on all observations
 It is not capable of further mathematical
treatment
 It is much affected by fluctuations of
sampling
 It is not suitable when different items of data
are unequal impotance
 Merits and demerits of range
 It is easy to understand and easy to calculate
 It gives quick measure of variability

DEMERITS
It is not based on all observations it is very
much affected by extreme observations
It is only gives rough idea of spread of
observations
It cannot to be calculated for a distributions
with open ends
Merits and demerits of standard deviation
MERITS
1)It is a rigidly defined measure of dispersion
2)It is based on all the observations
3)It is capable of being treated mathematically. For example, if
standard deviations of a number of groups are known, their
combined standard deviation can be computed
4)It is not very much affected by the fluctuations of sampling and
therefore is widely used in sampling theory and test of
significance
DEMERITS
1)As compared to the quartile deviation and range etc, it is difficult
to understand and difficult to calculate
2)It gives more importance to extreme observation
3)Since it depends upon the units of measurement of the
observations, it cannot be used to compare the dispersion of the
distribution expressed in different units
 …
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USES OF STANDARD DEVIATION
Standard deviation can be used to compare the dispersions of
two or more distributions when their units of
measurements and arithmetic means are same
It is used to test the reliability of mean. it may be pointed out
here that the mean of a distribution with least standard
deviation is said to be more reliable.
 DEMERITS OF MEDIAN
 In case of individual observations the process
of locations of median requires their
arrangement in order of the magnitude which
may be cumbersome task
 It is being a positional average it is not capable
treated algebraically
 It not based on the magnitude of all the
observations
 in comparison to arithmetic mean it much
affected by the fluctuations of sampling