This paper will delve into comparing the median household incomes between two states in the United States, namely, New Hampshire and Alaska. Based on the variables and the data provided, the following statistical measures will be calculated: measures of central tendency (i.e., mean, median, and mode) and measure of variability/dispersion (i.e., range, variance, and standard deviation). These measures will then be used to compare the two states.
Comparing Measures of Central Tendency
The table below shows the provided median household income between the two states from 2013 to 2108.
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| Year | New Hampshire | Alaska |
|
2018 |
90,500 |
91,000 |
|
2017 |
73,381 |
73,181 |
|
2016 |
70,936 |
76,440 |
|
2015 |
70,303 |
73,355 |
|
2014 |
66,532 |
71,583 |
|
2013 |
64,230 |
72,237 |
Based on the variables and data provided, the measures of central tendency were computed, which are shown below:
| Measures | New Hampshire | Alaska |
| Mean |
72,647 |
76,299 |
| Median |
70,620 |
73,268 |
| Mode |
#N/A |
#N/A |
The arithmetic mean, or average, is the average of data values, which is calculated by dividing the sum of observations by the number of observations (Omwuegbuzie, Daniel & Leech, 2007). Comparing the means between the two states, Alaska has a higher mean when compared to New Hampshire. Alaska has a mean of $76,299, while New Hampshire has a mean of $72,647. This indicates that households in Alaska have a higher household income as compared to households in New Hampshire. Another measure of central tendency is the median. The median is the middle value of a data set arranged in ascending or descending order (Omwuegbuzie, Daniel & Leech, 2007). The median value also varies between the two states. Alaska has a higher median value (73,268) than New Hampshire (70,620). However, this measure does not give a clear picture of the data set. The mode refers to the value that occurs most often ( Nesselroade, & Grimm, 2019) . There is no modal value of household income in the two states. This indicates that there is no median household income that occurred most often from 2013 to 2018 between the two states.
Comparing Measure of Variability or Dispersion
Based on the data provided, the measures of dispersion were calculated, which are shown below:
| Measures | New Hampshire | Alaska |
| Max |
90,500 |
91,000 |
| Min |
64,230 |
71,583 |
| Range |
26,270 |
19,417 |
| Standard Deviation |
8,524 |
6,749 |
The range is the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value (Bolsaugh, 2012). Comparing the range of median household incomes between the two states, New Hampshire has a higher range (26,270) than Alaska (19,417). This indicates that in New Hampshire, there is greater variability in income between the household with maximum income and household with a minimum income. With regard to standard deviation, New Hampshire has a higher standard deviation (8,524) than Alaska (6,749). This indicates that the median incomes between households in New Hampshire are more spread out than in Alaska (Bolsaugh, 2012). In other words, there is a greater variability of income between households in New Hampshire than in Alaska.
References
Boslaugh, S. (2012). Statistics in a nutshell: A desktop quick reference . "O'Reilly Media, Inc.."
Nesselroade, K. P., & Grimm, L. G. (2019). Statistical Applications for the Behavioral and Social Sciences . Wiley.
Omwuegbuzie, A., Daniel, L., & Leech, N. (2007). Encyclopedia of measurement and statistics. Ed. New J. Salkind. SAGE Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks
