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Descriptive statistics - Variance and Standard Deviation
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VARIANCE

The variance of a sample measures how the observations are spread around the mean. Large variance means the date is widely spread around the mean.

The formula is:

The unbiased formula is (for a sample):

with

x = the mean.

N = the population size.

n = the sample size.

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STANDARD DEVIATION

The standard deviation is the the square root of the variance. The standard deviation is in the same 'scale' as the mean is. The makes these two indicators 'comparable'.

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