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Calculate the variance of a data set. Choose between population variance (σ²) and sample variance (s²).
Use when data is a sample from a larger population. Dividing by (n-1) corrects for bias.
Use when data represents the entire population you're studying.
Dividing by (n-1) instead of n provides an unbiased estimate of population variance. This correction is called Bessel's correction and accounts for the fact that we're estimating the mean from the same sample.
Variance measures how spread out the data is from the mean. A higher variance indicates data points are more scattered, while a lower variance indicates they cluster closer to the mean.