EXAMPLE 1.26
Finding the quartiles. Here is the ordered list of the times to start a business in our sample of 24 countries:
| 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 24 | 25 | 32 | 38 | 49 | 53 |
The count of observations is even, so the median is at position , that is, between the 12th and the 13th observation in the ordered list. There are 12 cases above this position and 12 below it. The first quartile is the median of the first 12 observations, and the third quartile is the median of the last 12 observations. Check that and .