Definition of Central Tendency

The central tendency of a variable means a typical value around which other values tend to concentrate which can be measured. Such concentration of the values in the central part of distribution is referred as measure of central tendency also known as averages. Thus averages are typical values around which other items of the distribution congregate. They are the   value  of a statistical series.  In the words of Yule and  Kendall,  Measure  of the location  or position of frequency  distribution  are called  averages ,According  to croxton and Cowden,   An  average  is a single  value within the range  of the data  which is used to represent all the value  in the series. Since an average  is somewhere  within the range of the data , it is sometimes  called a measure of central  value .

Similarly  A,E.Waugh  has defined  it as an average  is a single  value selected from a group of value to represent  them in some way  a value  which  is supposed to stand for whole group of which it is a part or typical  of all the value in the group.

Dr. A. L. Bowley has said statistics may right be called the science of average.