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Either when there is a single data item, or when all data items have exactly the same value.

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Q: When would the standard deviation of a data set be zero?
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Can the variance be zero?

Variance is standard deviation squared. If standard deviation can be zero then the variance can obviously be zero because zero squared is still zero. The standard deviation is equal to the sum of the squares of each data point in your data set minus the mean, all that over n. The idea is that if all of your data points are the same then the mean will be the same as every data point. If the mean is the equal to every data point then the square of each point minus the mean would be zero. All of the squared values added up would still be zero. And zero divided by n is still zero. In this case the standard deviation would be zero. Short story short: if all of the points in a data set are equal than the variance will be zero. Yes the variance can be zero.


Does variance and standard deviation assume nominal data?

No. Variance and standard deviation are dependent on, but calculated irrespective of the data. You do, of course, have to have some variation, otherwise, the variance and standard deviation will be zero.


Can a standard deviation be less than 1?

Yes. Standard deviation depends entirely upon the distribution; it is a measure of how spread out it is (ie how far from the mean "on average" the data is): the larger it is the more spread out it is, the smaller the less spread out. If every data point was the mean, the standard deviation would be zero!


Is it possible for the standard deviation of a set of data to be zero?

Yes, but only if every element in the data set is exactly the same. Therefore, very unlikely.


What is considered a high standard deviation?

There's no valid answer to your question. The problem is a standard deviation can be close to zero, but there is no upper limit. So, I can make a statement that if my standard deviation is much smaller than my mean, this indicates a low standard deviation. This is somewhat subjective. But I can't make say that if my standard deviation is many times the mean value, that would be considered high. It depends on the problem at hand.

Related questions

Does a zero standard deviation support data?

no


What would it mean if a standard deviation was calculated to equal 0?

A standard deviation of zero means that all the data points are the same value.


Can standard deviation equal zero?

Standard deviation can only be zero if all the data points in your set are equal. If all data points are equal, there is no deviation. For example, if all the participants in a survey coincidentally were all 30 years old, then the value of age would be 30 with no deviation. Thus, there would also be no standard deviation.A data set of one point (small sample) will always have a standard deviation of zero, because the one value doesn't deviate from itself at all.!


Can the variance be zero?

Variance is standard deviation squared. If standard deviation can be zero then the variance can obviously be zero because zero squared is still zero. The standard deviation is equal to the sum of the squares of each data point in your data set minus the mean, all that over n. The idea is that if all of your data points are the same then the mean will be the same as every data point. If the mean is the equal to every data point then the square of each point minus the mean would be zero. All of the squared values added up would still be zero. And zero divided by n is still zero. In this case the standard deviation would be zero. Short story short: if all of the points in a data set are equal than the variance will be zero. Yes the variance can be zero.


Does variance and standard deviation assume nominal data?

No. Variance and standard deviation are dependent on, but calculated irrespective of the data. You do, of course, have to have some variation, otherwise, the variance and standard deviation will be zero.


Is it true that the standard deviation can equal zero in a data set?

The standard deviation is a measure of how much variation there is in a data set. It can be zero only if all the values are exactly the same - no variation.


What do you do if you are running a comparison to historical data and your background standard deviation is zero?

A standard deviation of 0 implies all of the observations are equal. That is, there is no variation in the data.


Can a standard deviation be less than 1?

Yes. Standard deviation depends entirely upon the distribution; it is a measure of how spread out it is (ie how far from the mean "on average" the data is): the larger it is the more spread out it is, the smaller the less spread out. If every data point was the mean, the standard deviation would be zero!


Does standard deviation and mean deviation measure dispersion the same?

No. The average of the deviations, or mean deviation, will always be zero. The standard deviation is the average squared deviation which is usually non-zero.


What can be said about a set of data when its standard deviation is small but not zero?

This means that the set of data is clustered really close to the mean/average. Your data set likely has a small range (highest value - lowest value). In other words, if the average is 6.3, and the standard deviation is 0.7, this means that each individual piece of data, on average, is different from the mean by 0.7. Each piece of data deviates from the mean by an average (standard) of 0.7; hence standard deviation! By definition, 66% of all data is 1 standard deviation from the mean, so 66% of the data in this example would be between the values of 5.6 and 7.0.


What is the Standard deviation of a set of data in which all the data values are the same?

ZeroDetails:The "Standard Deviation" for ungrouped data can be calculated in the following steps:all the deviations (differences) from the arithmetic mean of the set of numbers are squared;the arithmetic mean of these squares is then calculated;the square root of the mean is the standard deviationAccordingly,The arithmetic mean of set of data of equal values is the value.All the deviations will be zero and their squares will be zerosThe mean of squares is zeroThe square root of zero is zero which equals the standard deion


Why use standard deviation and not average deviation?

Because the average deviation will always be zero.