How to Calculate Variance from Standard Deviation (STDEV) Explained
Learn how to easily find variance by squaring the standard deviation (STDEV) value. Understand the relationship between variance and STDEV.
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To find the variance using STDEV (standard deviation), square the value of STDEV. Variance is a measure of how spread out a set of data points are. Given that STDEV calculates the standard deviation of a dataset, squaring this value directly yields the variance. This approach works because variance is mathematically defined as the average of the squared differences from the Mean, a property that STDEV is based upon but presents as the root of that average to show dispersion in the same units as the original data.
FAQs & Answers
- What is the formula to calculate variance from standard deviation? Variance is calculated by squaring the standard deviation value. In other words, Variance = (Standard Deviation)².
- Why do we square the standard deviation to get variance? Variance measures the average of the squared differences from the mean, so squaring the standard deviation (which is the square root of variance) reverses the square root to obtain the variance.
- Can variance be calculated directly without standard deviation? Yes, variance can be calculated directly by averaging the squared differences between each data point and the mean, but using standard deviation as a base is more common in many calculations.