Coefficient of Variation (CV) | Statistics

Coefficient of variation is a measure of relative dispersion. The coefficient of variation gives a value for the dispersion in percent.

The coefficient of variation is calculated and used to compare the spread in different frequency distributions where a comparison of the standard deviation would be meaningless. The coefficient of variation provides a value that can be compared between different frequency distributions because it is stated in percent, which is a common measure of value. The coefficient of variation is calculated as the standard deviation divided by the mean.

Coefficient of Variation: (standard deviation / mean) * 100

The coefficient of variation is a useful measure when different frequency distributions have different units or when there are large differences between the means of different frequency distributions.