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Which values are included in a five-number summary?
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statistics
Figure 1: A bar graph showing the marital status of 100 individuals.
In statistics, a five-number summary is a tool used in exploratory data analysis to provide a quick overview of a dataset's distribution. It consists of the following five values:12
- Smallest data value (minimum): The lowest observation in the dataset.12
- First quartile: The value at the 25th percentile, falling between the minimum and the median.12
- Median (second quartile): The central value of the dataset, located at the 50th percentile.12
- Third quartile: The value at the 75th percentile.12
- Largest data value (maximum): The highest observation in the dataset.12
These values are frequently used to construct a box plot, a graphical representation that helps visualize the spread and central tendency of the data.1