Percentile facts for kids

A percentile (or a centile) is a measure in statistics. It shows the value below which a given percentage of observations falls.

For example, the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20% of the observations may be found. The 35th percentile is the value below which 35% of the data may be found. In general, the i-th percentile, written as , is the value below which i percents of data may be found.

In statistics, a large set of numerical data is sometimes divided into 100 groups, each with 1% of the data. The data are arranged in ascending order. Each of the 99 dividing points is called a percentile of the data set.

Some of the percentiles have special names. For example. the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles are called the first, second and third quartile, respectively. The 50th percentile is also called the median.

Related pages

• Decile

Images for kids

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  Interpolated and nearest-rank, exclusive and inclusive, percentiles for 10-score distribution.

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  The percentile values for the ordered list {15, 20, 35, 40, 50}

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  The result of using each of the three variants on the ordered list {15, 20, 35, 40, 50}

See also

In Spanish: Percentil para niños