Averages or Measures of Central Tendency or Measures of Location.
According to Professor Bowley , averages are "statistical constants which enable
us to comprehend in a· single effort the significance of the whole." They give.us
an idea about the concentration of the values in the central part of the distribution.
Plainly speaking an average of a statistical series is the value of the variable Which
is representative of the entire distribution. The following are the five measures of
central tendency that are in common use:
(i) Arithmetic Mean.or simply Mean, (ii) Median
Requisites for an Ideal Measure of Central Tendency.
According to Professor Yule the following are the characteristics to be satisfied by- an ideal measure of central tendency :
.(i) It should be rigidly defined.
(ii) It should be readily comprehensible and easy to calculate.
(iii) It should be based on all the observations.
(iv) It should be suitable for further mathematical treatment. By this we mean that if we are given the averages and sizes of a number of series, we should be able the composite series obtained on to calculate the average of combining the given series.
(v) It should be affected as little as possible by fluctuations of sampling. In addition to the above criteria. we may add the following (which is not due to Prof. Yule) :
(vi) It should not be affected much by extreme values.
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