Range



The range is the simplest measure of spread or dispersion: It is equal to the difference between the largest and the smallest values. The range can be a useful measure of spread because it is so easily understood. However, it is very sensitive to extreme scores since it is based on only two values. The range should almost never be used as the only measure of spread, but can be informative if used as a supplement to other measures of spread such as the standard deviation or semi-interquartile range.

Example:
 The range of the numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 15, 19, 26 = 26 -1 = 25