Which term measures the spread of data around the mean?

Which term measures the spread of data around the mean?

• A. Standard deviation
• B. Range
• C. Quartiles
• D. Inter-quartile range

Answer: (A)

Standard deviation measures the spread of data around the mean. It tells you, on average, how far each value is from the mean by squaring deviations, averaging them, and taking the square root to put the result in the same units as the data. A small standard deviation means values cluster close to the mean, while a large one indicates they are more spread out. This is different from the range, which only uses the smallest and largest values, and from quartiles and the interquartile range, which describe spread around the median and are less sensitive to extreme values. For understanding dispersion tied to the mean, the standard deviation is the appropriate measure.

Standard deviation measures the spread of data around the mean. It tells you, on average, how far each value is from the mean by squaring deviations, averaging them, and taking the square root to put the result in the same units as the data. A small standard deviation means values cluster close to the mean, while a large one indicates they are more spread out. This is different from the range, which only uses the smallest and largest values, and from quartiles and the interquartile range, which describe spread around the median and are less sensitive to extreme values. For understanding dispersion tied to the mean, the standard deviation is the appropriate measure.