Numerical Outcomes - Essay Example

is true that it would be good to know the exact values of individual cases, it would be better to know the characteristics of the population or a fraction of the population being studied. According to Bonita, Beaglehole & Tord Kjellström (2007) summary numbers are those that “attempt to characterize the center of a sample of measurements” (p.67). The following paragraphs discuss the uses of the following statistics: mean, standard deviation, normal distribution and confidence intervals. The mean is a measure of central tendency along with median and mode.

While the mode is the most frequently occurring value in the data set and the median is the numerical center of the data set, the mean is the average of the data set. Statistically it is the sum of the values or the observations divided by the number of cases or samples. There is a need to represent numerical outcomes in central measures to make the data more meaningful. It won’t matter so much if we know the individual annual income of the subjects but it would be better to know the general picture of the subjects, whether they are in the middle income or lower income brackets.

Given the annual income of 5 families that constitute a community, the mean of the family incomes of these families would be a description of the whole community as a whole. Given the family incomes below, the mean would be $34,400. This means that the families in the community are middle income families. However, the mean does not necessarily picture the community as a whole. To report the community as a middle income community would be misleading since there is a family that earns $100,000.

To support the data, the minimum and maximum values should also be reported. If this is reported, then there will be a better understanding of the characteristics of the community. Take note that if all families earned $34,400 annually, it will also give the same value for the mean annual income. Another descriptive statistic