What is a five number summary?

Question

Ezekiel Anderson · Accepted Answer

A five-number summary is the 5 values from the data displayed on a boxplot/box-and-whisker plot.

The five-number summary consists of:

Minumum: lowest value/observation
Lower quartile or Q1: "median" of the lower half of data; lies at 25% of data
Median: middle value/observation
Higher quartile or Q3: "median" of the upper half of data; lies at 75% of data
Maximum: highest value/observation
Here's an example:

Hope this helps!

David Armstrong · Answer

undefined A five-number summary is a descriptive statistic that provides a concise summary of a dataset's distribution. It consists of five key values: the minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum. These values divide the dataset into four equal parts, each containing approximately 25% of the data. The minimum represents the smallest observation in the dataset, while the maximum represents the largest. The first quartile (Q1) is the value below which 25% of the data falls, and the third quartile (Q3) is the value below which 75% of the data falls. The median (Q2) is the middle value of the dataset when it is arranged in ascending order. The five-number summary is often used to provide a snapshot of the central tendency, spread, and skewness of a dataset.