platykurtic distribution

statistics

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July 21, 2026

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In statistics, a platykurtic distribution is one that is less peaked and has less concentration about the mean than a normal distribution. This means the data is more spread out, with fewer extreme values.1

Kurtosis is a measure of the "tailedness" of a distribution, or how much of the variable's distribution is found in the tails. While sometimes mistaken for measuring "peakedness," kurtosis primarily indicates the weight of the tails.

A platykurtic distribution has negative kurtosis, indicating narrower tails and less variability in the extreme values compared to a normal distribution, which has a kurtosis of zero.2

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kurtosis
In contrast, platykurtic distributions have narrow tails and thus have negative kurtosis, whereas mesokurtic distributions (such as the normal distribution) have a kurtosis of zero.
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In contrast, platykurtic distributions have narrow tails and thus have negative kurtosis, whereas mesokurtic distributions (such as the normal distribution) have a kurtosis of zero.
Read More