StATS: What is a range?

The range (R) is the distance between the largest and the smallest numbers in the data.

The range is easy to understand and easy to compute. If you suspect, howver, that there are outliers in your data, then the range will be unduly influenced by those outliers.

Example

For the data below (LDL), the largest value is 5.85 and the smallest is 1.84.

1 84
2 96
3 84,68,72,49,84,73
4 80,41,14
5 57,85,26

The range is 5.85-1.84 = 4.01.

Compute the range for the Pimax data.

0
0
0 45,40
0 75,70,75,75,70
0 80,85,95,95,95,80,80,95
1 10,00,00,10,00,10
1 30,20,25
1 50
1
1

The largest value is 150 and the smallest is 40.

R = 150-40 = 110.

This page was written by Steve Simon while working at Children's Mercy Hospital. Although I do not hold the copyright for this material, I am reproducing it here as a service, as it is no longer available on the Children's Mercy Hospital website. Need more information? I have a page with general help resources. You can also browse for pages similar to this one at Category: Definitions, Category: Descriptive statistics.