Elementary Statstics

6.1.1 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 Iii) Median,

ii) Mode (iv) Geometric Mean, and Harmonic Mean