MathLiveBessel's correction
Dividing the sum of squared deviations by n-1 instead of n corrects the downward bias of the sample variance, so that it is an unbiased estimator of the population variance. It is used whenever variance is estimated from a sample rather than a full population.
s^2=\frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^{n}\left(x_i-\bar{x}\right)^2What the symbols mean
| unbiased sample variance | |
| number of observations in the sample | |
| the i-th observed value | |
| sample mean of the observations |
About this formula
- FieldStatistics
- TopicDescriptive statistics
- LevelUniversity
- Also calledsample variance n-1 denominator, unbiased sample variance, n minus 1 variance, sample variance formula, unbiased estimator of variance, variance with n-1
- SourceWikidata Q526938
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