HOW TO CALCULATE A

CORRELATION
Can one statistic measure both the
strength and direction of a linear
relationship between two variables?
Sure! Statisticians use the correlation
coefficient to measure the strength
and direction of the linear relationship
between two numerical
variables X and Y. The correlation
coefficient for a sample of data is
denoted by r.
Although the street definition
of correlation applies to any two
items that are related (such as
gender and political affiliation),
statisticians use this term only in the
context of two numerical variables.
The formal term for correlation is
the correlation coefficient. Many
different correlation measures have
been created; the one used in this
case is called the Pearson correlation
coefficient.
The formula for the correlation (r) is

where n is the number of pairs of

data;

are the sample means of all the x-

values and all the y-values,
respectively; and sxand sy are the
sample standard deviations of all
the x- and y-values, respectively.
 You can use the following steps to
calculate the correlation, r, from a
data set:
1. Find the mean of all the x-values

2. Find the standard deviation of all

the x-values (call it sx) and the
standard deviation of all the y-values
(call it sy).
For example, to find sx, you would
use the following equation:

3. For each of the n pairs (x, y) in the

data set, take

4. Add up the n results from Step 3.

5. Divide the sum by sx ∗ sy.
6. Divide the result by n – 1,
where n is the number of (x, y) pairs.
 (It’s the same as multiplying by 1
over n – 1.)
This gives you the correlation, r.
For example, suppose you have the
data set (3, 2), (3, 3), and (6, 4). You
calculate the correlation
coefficient r via the following steps.
(Note that for this data the x-values
are 3, 3, 6, and the y-values are 2, 3,
4.)
1. Calculating the mean of the x and
y values, you get

2. The standard deviations are sx =

1.73 and sy = 1.00.
3. The n = 3 differences found in
Step 2 multiplied together are: (3 –
4)(2 – 3) = (– 1)( – 1) = +1; (3 – 4)(3
 – 3) = (– 1)(0) = 0; (6 – 4)(4 – 3) =
(2)(1) = +2.
4. Adding the n = 3 Step 3 results,
you get 1 + 0 + 2 = 3.
5. Dividing by sx ∗ sy gives you 3 /
(1.73 ∗ 1.00) = 3 / 1.73 = 1.73. (It’s
just a coincidence that the result from
Step 5 is also 1.73.)
6. Now divide the Step 5 result by 3
– 1 (which is 2), and you get the
correlation r = 0.87.

https://www.dummies.com/education/
math/statistics/how-to-calculate-a-
correlation/