Mean Absolute Deviation Calculator
Calculate the Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) from up to 10 data values. MAD measures the average distance of data points from the mean, providing a simple and intuitive measure of spread.
Mean Absolute Deviation is a measure of variability that describes how spread out data values are from the arithmetic mean. Unlike variance and standard deviation, MAD uses absolute values instead of squaring, making it easier to interpret.
Formula: MAD = (1/n) x sum of |xi - mean| for all i. You first calculate the mean, then find the absolute difference between each data point and the mean, and finally average those absolute differences.
MAD vs. Standard Deviation: Both measure spread, but MAD is less sensitive to outliers because it does not square deviations. For a normal distribution, the standard deviation is approximately 1.2533 times the MAD. MAD is preferred when communicating results to non-technical audiences because it has a straightforward interpretation: the average distance from the average.