Range Calculator

Calculate the statistical range (maximum minus minimum) of a dataset with minimum, maximum, mean, and count.

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Values

Range

Minimum

Maximum

Range (max − min)	11
Minimum	1
Maximum	12
Mean	5.86
Count	7

Descriptive Statistics

Range calculator — simplest measure of spread

The statistical range is the difference between the maximum and minimum values in a dataset. It is the simplest measure of spread — a single number showing the full width of the data. While easy to compute and understand, the range is sensitive to outliers and tells you nothing about how values are distributed between the extremes.

What the range tells you

Range = max − min. For [3, 7, 1, 9, 5], the range is 9 − 1 = 8. The range tells you the span of your data: no value can be more than 8 units away from any other value in this dataset.

The range is quick to compute and easy to explain. It is used in quality control (product specifications), weather reporting (daily temperature range), and sports analytics (range of scores). For a quick sanity check on data — checking that values fall within expected bounds — the range is often the first statistic to compute.

Limitations of the range

The range is entirely determined by two values — the maximum and the minimum. One outlier can dramatically inflate the range without changing anything about the rest of the dataset. This makes it unreliable as a general measure of spread for real-world data.

For a more robust measure of spread that is not influenced by extreme values, use the interquartile range (IQR = Q3 − Q1), which measures the spread of the middle 50% of values. For a measure that uses all values, use the standard deviation or mean absolute deviation.

Frequently asked questions

When is the range a good statistic to use?

The range is useful for quickly checking whether data falls within expected bounds, for communicating the full extent of a dataset to a non-technical audience, and for very small datasets where robustness is less of a concern. It is also appropriate when the extreme values themselves are meaningful (e.g. daily high/low temperatures).

How is the range different from the IQR?

The range covers all values (max − min). The IQR covers only the middle 50% of values (Q3 − Q1). The IQR ignores the most extreme values, making it robust to outliers. For most statistical analyses, the IQR or standard deviation provides more useful information than the range.

Can the range be negative?

No. The range is always ≥ 0 because it is max minus min, and max ≥ min by definition. A range of 0 means all values are identical.

Range Calculator

Range calculator — simplest measure of spread

What the range tells you

Limitations of the range

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