Merits and Demerits of Range

Merits

• It is rigidly defined.
• It is simple to understood even by a man of ordinary prudence.
• It is very easy to calculate as its formula rests only on two simple factors i.e. L and S.
• It takes the least possible time to be calculated.
• It is calculation is not affected, even if, some items in the middle part of a series are missing.

Demerits

• It does not take into consideration all the items of a series as it is calculated on the basis of only two extreme values of a series.
• In case of an open end series, Range cannot be calculated unless the lower limit of the lowest class, and the upper limit of the highest class are determined by estimation.
• It does not take into account the frequencies of the distribution.
• It is not capable of further algebraic treatment.
• It is greatly affected by the fluctuations in sampling.
• It cannot reveal the different dispersal characters of different series in which two extreme values remain the same.