Elementary Statstics

6.1.2 Requisites for an Ideal Measure or 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 upon 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 to calculate the average of the composite series obtained on 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