CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002)Data AnalysisEasy
A data analyst is working with a dataset of customer ages. The ages are heavily skewed to the right due to a small number of very old customers. Which measure of central tendency would be most appropriate to describe the typical customer age in this scenario?
- AMean
- BRange
- CMedian
- DMode
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Median
The median is the most appropriate measure of central tendency for skewed distributions because it is less affected by extreme values (outliers) compared to the mean. The mean would be pulled towards the tail of the skew, giving a misleading representation of the typical value.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The mean is sensitive to outliers and would be skewed by the very old customers.
- B. Range is a measure of dispersion, not central tendency.
- D. The mode represents the most frequent value, which might not be representative in a continuous age distribution.
Median for Skewed Data
The median is the middle value in a sorted dataset, often preferred over the mean for skewed distributions as it is less affected by outliers.
- Divides data into two equal halves.
- Resistant to extreme values.
- Best for ordinal or interval data with skew.
Memory trick: Mean is for averages, Median is for middle, Mode is for most.