Range

The range is a measure of spread equal to the difference between the largest and smallest values in a data set.

The range measures spread as the distance between the two most extreme values. You compute it as range=maximum−minimum\text{range} = \text{maximum} - \text{minimum}. For example, if test scores run from 62 to 98, the range is 98−62=3698 - 62 = 36 points. Because it uses only the two extreme values, the range is highly sensitive to outliers and ignores everything in between.

More describing data terms, or browse the full statistics glossary.