What statistical term refers to the spread of data points in a dataset?

The correct answer is variance. Variance is a statistical term that quantifies the degree of spread or dispersion of data points in a dataset. It measures how far each data point is from the mean of the dataset and thus provides insight into the degree of variability present. A higher variance indicates that the data points are more spread out from the average, while a lower variance suggests that they are clustered more closely around the mean. Understanding variance is crucial in statistics, as it helps analysts gauge the consistency or variability of data, which is important for many analytical and predictive modeling tasks.

In contrast, the mean refers to the average value of the dataset, and the median represents the middle value when the data points are ordered. Both of these are measures of central tendency, rather than measures of spread. Frequency relates to the count of occurrences of each value in a dataset, which provides information about how often a particular value appears, but does not directly measure how data points are spread across the range of values.