expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its mean

In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable. The standard deviation is obtained as the square root of the … Wikipedia
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Wikipedia
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Variance - Wikipedia
5 days ago - In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable. The standard deviation is obtained as the square root of the variance. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbers are ...
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CalculatorSoup
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Variance Calculator
November 4, 2025 - Variance is the sum of squares divided by the number of data points. ... The formula for variance of a is the sum of the squared differences between each data point and the mean, divided by the number of data values.
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Population variance vs Sample variance. Why the formula difference?
https://towardsdatascience.com/why-sample-variance-is-divided-by-n-1-89821b83ef6d?gi=5f94af50261e First google result Basically it is degrees of freedom More on reddit.com
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October 10, 2022
statistics - Why are there two formulas for the sample variance? - Mathematics Stack Exchange
Both formulas are useful at different times. The first shows the relation to variance of a random variable, which is defined very similiarly (but with $n$ as denominator). The second is useful for actually calculating the sample variance without needing to go calculate the avergae $\bar{x}$ first. More on math.stackexchange.com
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June 14, 2019
Sample variance formula
Typically, when trying to prove things, it's helpful to state what you're trying to prove. For example, I don't know how to help you because you haven't written what statement, theorem, fact, formula, identity, etc, ... that you're trying to prove. Also, you need to define your symbols, which, without context, are meaningless. More on reddit.com
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September 5, 2022
When to use which variance formula?
I also know [..] "Mean of the squares minus the mean squared". That applies to variance -- not sample variance. For sample variance, you need to account for the modified denominator "n-1" instead of "n" like this: s2 = βˆ‘(xiβˆ’xΒ―)^2 / (nβˆ’1) = (n/(n-1)) * [(x^2)Β― - (xΒ―)^2] // (x^2)Β― = (βˆ‘ xi^2) / n // xΒ― = (βˆ‘ xi ) / n With the adjustment factor "n/(n-1)", you should get the same result for both. More on reddit.com
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June 12, 2024
People also ask

What is variance used for in statistics?
Statistical tests such as variance tests or the analysis of variance (ANOVA) use sample variance to assess group differences of populations. They use the variances of the samples to assess whether the populations they come from significantly differ from each other.
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How to Calculate Variance | Calculator, Analysis & Examples
What’s the difference between standard deviation and variance?
Variance is the average squared deviations from the mean, while standard deviation is the square root of this number. Both measures reflect variability in a distribution, but their units differ: Β· Standard deviation is expressed in the same units as the original values (e.g., minutes or meters). Β· Variance is expressed in much larger units (e.g., meters squared). Β· Although the units of variance are harder to intuitively understand, variance is important in statistical tests.
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How to Calculate Variance | Calculator, Analysis & Examples
What are the 4 main measures of variability?
Variability is most commonly measured with the following descriptive statistics: Β· Range: the difference between the highest and lowest values Β· Interquartile range: the range of the middle half of a distribution Β· Standard deviation: average distance from the mean Β· Variance: average of squared distances from the mean
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How to Calculate Variance | Calculator, Analysis & Examples
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How to Calculate Variance | Calculator, Analysis & Examples
June 21, 2023 - The variance is a measure of variability. It is calculated by taking the average of squared deviations from the mean. Variance tells you the degree of
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Cuemath
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Sample Variance - Definition, Meaning, Formula, Examples
The formula for variance : s2 = \(\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{n}(x_{i}-\mu)^{2}}{n-1}\) , s2 = sample variance \(x_{i}\) = Each data value ΞΌ = mean of the data set n = total number of values in the data set.
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Statistics How To
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Sample Variance: Simple Definition, How to Find it in Easy Steps - Statistics How To
September 30, 2024 - Divide the number in Step 4 by the number in Step 5. This gives you the variance: 31,099.5 / 5 = 6,219.9. Take the square root of your answer from Step 8. This gives you the standard deviation: ... That’s it! Important note: The standard deviation formula is slightly different for populations and samples (a portion of the population).
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r/econometrics on Reddit: Population variance vs Sample variance. Why the formula difference?
October 10, 2022 -

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering why when calculating the sample variance, the denominator of the fraction is n-1 whereas with population variance it is simply N. Here are the two equations which I am working with.

Thanks everyone.

Top answer
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Helen Walker was my mentor's mentor, and her essay on degrees of freedom is difficult to follow, but has some nice analogies. https://www.nohsteachers.info/pcaso/ap_statistics/PDFs/DegreesOfFreedom.pdf The way I like to describe the issue is this: When you draw one sample and you estimate one parameter from that sample, you typically start by estimating the mean. But many times you want to estimate both the mean and the variance, and you want to get both of those estimates from the same sample (because data are expensive, in some cases you only have one sample and you don't have the option of collecting more data). So when you estimate the mean of the population, based on the observed mean of the sample, that estimate of the population mean is unbiased -- on average your estimates will center around the true population mean, theoretically speaking. But if you then use the same data to estimate the population variance, and if in doing so you use the formula that divides by N, then your estimate of the variance will be biased low -- the true population variance will be higher than what your calculation, dividing by N, states. The reason for this is hard to fathom when you first encounter it, but it comes down to this -- you have to pay a little penalty when you estimate more than one parameter from the same sample data, so in order to adjust the calculation you divide by N-1. That results in an estimate of the population variance that, MAGICALLY AND IN WAYS THAT I DON'T FULLY COMPREHEND EVEN THOUGH I HAVE READ HELEN'S PAPER AND I HAVE BEEN DOING STATISTICS FOR 40 YEARS, removes the bias. The method generalizes, for example if you estimate the population correlation coefficient, you have to calculate both the mean and the variance (well, more specifically, the sum of squares) and thus you have calculated 2 parameters before you even get to estimating the correlation coefficient, so in the test of the signifiance of the correlation coefficient you will see N-2 is in the equation. https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/PH717-QuantCore/PH717-Module9-Correlation-Regression/PH717-Module9-Correlation-Regression5.html William Gosset observed the practical impact of all this when he was the quality control statistician at Guinness Brewery in early part of the 20th century. Gosset drew hundreds of small samples, and over time he found that the distribution of the sample means he calculated was not quite normal -- the distribution was a bit more peaked, with thinner tails, and as N was smaller the peakedness increased, and as N increased the distribution estimates of the mean came closer and closer to the normal distribution. In consulting with Karl Pearson, Gosset came to understand how to correct his statistical tests for this anomaly, which gave us the Student's t distribution (Gosset was permitted by Guiness to publish his research under a pseudonym, "Student"). https://www.physoc.org/magazine-articles/the-strange-origins-of-the-students-t-test/ So don't feel bad if all this seems dense. Gosset spent a year doing the basic research, with Karl Pearson, to get the concept into a working paper, and it took almost 20 more years before Fisher expanded on the method to get us to a general method of hypothesis testing using the Student's t.
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https://towardsdatascience.com/why-sample-variance-is-divided-by-n-1-89821b83ef6d?gi=5f94af50261e First google result Basically it is degrees of freedom
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Standard Deviation and Variance
Sample Variance = 108,520 / 4 = 27,130 · Sample Standard Deviation = √27,130 = 165 (to the nearest mm) Think of it as a "correction" when our data is only a sample. Here are the two formulas, explained at Standard Deviation Formulas if you want to know more: Looks complicated, but the important change is to divide by N-1 (instead of N) when calculating a Sample Standard Deviation.
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Penn State University
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8.5 - Sample Means and Variances | STAT 414
The sample standard deviation, denoted \(s\) is simply the positive square root of the sample variance.
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Influential Points
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R: Sample variance and SD
Variance and SD R can calculate the sample variance and sample standard deviation of our cattle weight data using these instructions: Β· sd(y) instructs R to return the sample standard deviation of y, using n-1 degrees of freedom
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Standard Deviation Calculator
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Variance Calculator - Sample/Population
Variance Calculator finds the variance, standard deviation, mean, and sum of squares of comma separated values with steps
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University of Southampton Library
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Maths and Stats - Variance, Standard Deviation and Standard Error - LibGuides@Southampton at University of Southampton Library
November 10, 2025 - The formula is given by: where: SE is the standard error Β· Οƒ is the standard deviation Β· n is the sample size. Let's say we have the following dataset: 7, 12, 5, 18, 5, 9, 10, 9, 12, 8, 12, 16 Β· In order to find the variance and standard deviation of this, we need to first find the mean, which is: The variance of this dataset is then given by: to two decimal places.
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Corporate Finance Institute
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Variance Formula - Calculate, Free Templates, Types
June 10, 2025 - This formula can also work for ... was $150,000 and the actual result was $165,721. We now take $165,721 and subtract $150,000, to get a variance of $15,721....
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University of Texas at Austin
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WHY DOES THE SAMPLE VARIANCE HAVE N-1 IN THE DENOMINATOR?
In Chapter 4 (p. 59), the sample variance of a sample y1, y2, … , yn was defined as ... E( π‘Œ) = πœ‡. (This is not difficult to prove, using the definition of sample mean and ... Exercise: Prove formula (1). [Hint: Multiply out 𝑦!
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Ablebits
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How to calculate variance in Excel – sample & population variance formula
May 10, 2023 - See how to find variance in Excel based on a sample or population. Variance formula examples show how to use VAR, VAR.S, VAR.P, VARA and other functions.
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Penn State University
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24.4 - Mean and Variance of Sample Mean | STAT 414
Now, the \(X_i\) are identically distributed, which means they have the same variance \(\sigma^2\). Therefore, replacing \(\text{Var}(X_i)\) with the alternative notation \(\sigma^2\), we get: \(Var(\bar{X})=\dfrac{1}{n^2}[\sigma^2+\sigma^2+\cdots+\sigma^2]\) Now, because there are \(n\) \(\sigma^2\)'s in the above formula, we can rewrite the expected value as: \(Var(\bar{X})=\dfrac{1}{n^2}[n\sigma^2]=\dfrac{\sigma^2}{n}\) Our result indicates that as the sample size \(n\) increases, the variance of the sample mean decreases.
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Statistics Canada
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4.5.3 Calculating the variance and standard deviation
Unlike range and interquartile range, variance is a measure of dispersion that takes into account the spread of all data points in a data set. It’s the measure of dispersion the most often used, along with the standard deviation, which is simply the square root of the variance.
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Wolfram MathWorld
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Sample Variance -- from Wolfram MathWorld
July 2, 2003 - The sample variance m_2 (commonly written s^2 or sometimes s_N^2) is the second sample central moment and is defined by m_2=1/Nsum_(i=1)^N(x_i-m)^2, (1) where m=x^_ the sample mean and N is the sample size.
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YouTube
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Understanding Population and Sample Variance - YouTube
Welcome to our enlightening YouTube video on understanding population and sample variance! In this comprehensive tutorial, we delve into the world of statist...
Published Β  July 25, 2023