Absolute Deviation

In statistics, the absolute deviation of an element of a data set is the absolute difference between that element and a given point. Typically the point from which the deviation is measured is a measure of central tendency, most often the median or sometimes the mean of the data set.

where

D_i is the absolute deviation,

x_i is the data element

and m(X) is the chosen measure of central tendency of the data set—sometimes the mean, but most often the median.