Relative Measures of Dispersion

Dispersion refers to the spread or variation of a collection of data measurements around a center point (such as the mean, median, or mode). Measures of dispersion are differentiated based on their unit of measurement. Absolute measures of dispersion are expressed in the same unit as the original measurement. Relative measures of dispersion are expressed as standardized measurement units, such as ratios or percentages. Absolute measures of dispersion do not allow analysts to directly compare dispersion between samples that have different means or that have different units of measurement. For example, income may be shown in dollars or euros; length as feet or meters; temperature as Celsius or Fahrenheit. This makes comparison among such groups difficult or impossible. In contrast, using relative measures of ...

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