Statistic

Range

The range is simply the difference between the largest score (the maximum value) and the smallest score (the minimum value) of a distribution.

For example, in our depression survey described earlier, we may have one student that scores a 1 and another that scores a 20, but the other 98 may all score a 10.

In this example, the range will be 19 (20 − 1 = 19), but the scores really are not as spread out as the range might suggest. Researchers often take a quick look at the range to see whether all or most of the points on a scale, such as a survey, were covered in the sample.

Range = Xmax - Xmin

◆ Disadvantages: Ignores the way in which data are distributed; sensitive to outliers.