Semi-Interquartile Range



The semi-interquartile range is a measure of spread or dispersion. It is computed as one half the difference between the 75th percentile [often called (Q3)] and the 25th percentile (Q1). The formula for semi-interquartile range is therefore: (Q3-Q1)/2.

Since half the scores in a distribution lie between Q3 and Q1, the semi-interquartile range is 1/2 the distance needed to cover 1/2 the scores. In a symmetric distribution, an interval stretching from one semi-interquartile range below the median to one semi-interquartile above the median will contain 1/2 of the scores. This will not be true for a skewed distribution, however.

The semi-interquartile range is little affected by extreme scores, so it is a good measure of spread for skewed distributions. However, it is more subject to sampling fluctuation in normal distributions than is the standard deviation and therefore not often used for data that are approximately normally distributed.