Clever Calculators

Standard Deviation Calculator

Find the standard deviation, variance and mean of a data set, for either a sample or a whole population.

Separate values with commas, spaces or new lines.

Result
Standard deviation

Enter at least two numbers for a sample standard deviation.

Enter your numbers separated by commas, spaces or new lines. Choose whether they're a sample (part of a larger group) or the whole population — this changes how the spread is calculated.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between sample and population standard deviation?

Population standard deviation divides by n and is used when your data covers the whole group. Sample standard deviation divides by (n − 1) and is used when your data is a sample of a larger group — the smaller denominator corrects a bias, giving a better estimate of the true spread.

What does standard deviation actually tell me?

It measures how spread out the numbers are around the mean. A small standard deviation means values cluster close to the average; a large one means they're widely scattered.

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