Statistics Vocabulary

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Statistical Question

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A question that can be answered by collecting data that will have variability (many different answers). Example: 'How tall are the students in our class?'

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Variability

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The extent to which data points in a set differ from each other; the opposite of consistency.

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Data

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Facts, figures, or information collected for analysis or reference.

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Distribution

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The overall shape, center, and spread of a set of data.

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Measure of Center

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A single value that summarizes a data set by describing the middle or typical value (e.g., mean, median, mode).

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Mean (or Average)

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The sum of all the numbers in a data set divided by the number of values. It is the 'balance point' of the distribution.

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Median

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The middle number in a set of data that has been arranged in order from least to greatest.

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Measure of Variation (or Spread)

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A single value that describes how far apart the data points are from each other (e.g., range, IQR, MAD).

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Interquartile Range (IQR)

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A measure of spread that describes the range of the middle 50% of the data. It is calculated by subtracting the first quartile (Q1) from the third quartile (Q3).

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Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)

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The average distance of each data point from the mean. It measures how spread out the data points are.