Mean Absolute Deviation Calculator

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Mean absolute deviation is a measure of spread similar to the standard deviation or variance

Use this calculator to find the mean absolute deviation of an input data set

How to Calculate Mean Absolute Deviation

  1. Upload your data set using the input at the top of this page

  2. View the mean absolute deviations of each numerical column

How to Calculate Mean Absolute Deviation: Step-By-Step

  1. Calculate the mean of the data set

  2. Calculate the absolute difference between each point and the mean

  3. Sum the absolute differences

  4. Divide the sum of absolute differences by the number of points in the data set.

Mean Absolute Deviation Formula

The mean absolute deviation is calculated as the average distance between each point x and the mean of x:

Mean absolute deviation formula

What is the Difference Between Mean Absolute Deviation and Standard Deviation

Mean absolute deviation and standard deviation are both measures of spread. They are both calculated based on the distance between a point and the mean of the points.

The standard deviation is calculated using the distance between the point and the mean of all points squared. While the mean absolute deviation is calculated using the distance between each point and the mean of all points.

The standard deviation formula is as follows:

Standard deviation formula

Notice that the standard deviation formula squares the distance between each point x and the mean of all points x. This means that outlier points x can greatly impact the standard deviation.

The mean absolute deviation does not use the square difference between each point and the mean of all points. It just uses the absolute distance. This means that the mean absolute deviation is less sensitive to outliers than the standard deviation.