Understanding data is crucial in any field. One of the most common statistical tools used for this purpose is the standard deviation. It’s a measure that quantifies the variation or dispersion of a set of values. In this blog post, we will show you how to find the standard deviation in Google Sheets.
What is Standard Deviation?
Standard deviation is a measure that is used to quantify the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation means that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while a high standard deviation means that the values are spread out over a wider range.
Finding Standard Deviation in Google Sheets
Google Sheets is a fantastic tool that has built-in functionality to calculate standard deviation. There are two common functions used to calculate standard deviation in Google Sheets: STDEVP and STDEV.S. The STDEVP function is used when your data represents the entire population. STDEV.S is used when your data is a sample of the entire population.
Here’s how to use these functions:
Using the STDEVP Function
If your data represents the entire population, you can use the STDEVP function to calculate the standard deviation. The syntax for this function is: =STDEVP(value1, [value2], …)
=STDEVP(A2:A100)
Using the STDEV.S Function
If your data is a sample of the entire population, use the STDEV.S function to calculate the standard deviation. The syntax for this function is: =STDEV.S(value1, [value2], …)
=STDEV.S(A2:A100)
Conclusion
In this blog post, we learned how to calculate standard deviation in Google Sheets using the STDEVP and STDEV.S functions. Depending on whether your data set represents the entire population or a sample, you will use either one of these functions. This is a fundamental skill for anyone working with data. Google Sheets makes it quite simple to quickly calculate this important statistical measure.
