Tyranny of averages

Tyranny of averages

The tyranny of averages is a phrase used to describe the often overlooked fact that the mean does not provide any information about the distribution of a data set or skewness, and that decisions or analysis based on this value—as opposed to median and standard deviation—may be faulty.

A UN Development Program press release discusses a real world example: [http://www.undp.org.af/media_room/archives/press_rel/2005/docs/20050704_pr_voices_ldcs_publication.pdf]

A new report launched 1 July 2005 warns that in Asia and the Pacific, the rising prosperity and fast growth in populous countries like China and India is hiding widespread extreme poverty in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The result is potentially very debilitating to development efforts in the 14 Asia-Pacific LDCs.

This “tyranny of averages” to which the report refers tends to mask the stark contrast between the Asia-Pacific LDCs’ sluggish economies and the success of their far more populous neighbours.

ee also

*Law of large numbers
*Law of averages
*Trimean


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of statistics topics — Please add any Wikipedia articles related to statistics that are not already on this list.The Related changes link in the margin of this page (below search) leads to a list of the most recent changes to the articles listed below. To see the most… …   Wikipedia

  • United States — a republic in the N Western Hemisphere comprising 48 conterminous states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the N Pacific. 267,954,767; conterminous United States, 3,022,387 sq. mi. (7,827,982 sq. km); with… …   Universalium

  • Majority rule — Majority Rules redirects here. For Canadian comedy show, see Majority Rules!. Part of the Politics series Electoral methods …   Wikipedia

  • Dominican Republic — Not to be confused with The Commonwealth of Dominica. Dominican Republic República Dominicana (Spanish) …   Wikipedia

  • Venezuela — Venezuelan, adj., n. /ven euh zway leuh, zwee /; Sp. /be ne swe lah/, n. a republic in N South America. 22,396,407; 352,143 sq. mi. (912,050 sq. km). Cap.: Caracas. * * * Venezuela Introduction Venezuela Background: Venezuela was one of the three …   Universalium

  • Instant-runoff voting — Example instant runoff voting ballot …   Wikipedia

  • Rome — For the civilization of classical antiquity, see Ancient Rome. For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). Rome Roma    …   Wikipedia

  • Chihuahua (state) — For other uses, see Chihuahua (disambiguation). Chihuahua Estado Libre y Soberano de Chihuahua   State   …   Wikipedia

  • Jämtland — Coat of arms …   Wikipedia

  • Cuba — Cuban, adj., n. /kyooh beuh/; Sp. /kooh vah/, n. a republic in the Caribbean, S of Florida: largest island in the West Indies. 10,999,041; 44,218 sq. mi. (114,525 sq. km). Cap.: Havana. /kooh bah/, n. Cubba. * * * Cuba Introduction Cuba… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”