Which statistic is used to quantify dispersion around the mean?

• A. The central tendency
• B. The maximum value
• C. Standard deviation
• D. The spread around the mean

Answer: (C)

Dispersion around the mean describes how spread out the data are from the central value. The standard deviation is the statistic that quantifies this spread: it represents the average distance each observation lies from the mean, using squared deviations to keep all deviations—especially larger ones—counted. Because it’s in the same units as the data, it’s easy to interpret and compare across datasets. This makes it the most common way to express how much values vary around the mean. The central tendency describes where the data cluster, not how far they spread. The maximum value is just a single extreme point and doesn’t tell you about overall dispersion. The idea of the “spread around the mean” is what you’re measuring, and the standard deviation is the standard way to express that quantity.