page_title: Statistical dispersion
hierarchical_section_title: Statistical dispersion
context_page_description: In statistics, dispersion is the extent to which a distribution is stretched or squeezed. Common examples of measures of statistical dispersion are the variance, standard deviation, and interquartile range.
  Dispersion is contrasted with location or central tendency, and together they are the most used properties of distributions.
context_section_description: In statistics, dispersion (also called variability, scatter, or spread) is the extent to which a distribution is stretched or squeezed. Common examples of measures of statistical dispersion are the variance, standard deviation, and interquartile range.
  Dispersion is contrasted with location or central tendency, and together they are the most used properties of distributions.
caption: Example of samples from two populations with the same mean but different dispersion. The blue population is much more dispersed than the red population.