How is variance defined in statistical terms?

Variance is defined as a measure of how much the values in a data set differ from the mean. It quantifies the degree of spread in a set of data points. Specifically, variance assesses the average of the squared differences from the mean, providing insight into the distribution of data points around the mean value. A higher variance indicates greater dispersion among the values, while a lower variance suggests that the values are closer to the mean.

The other choices highlight different concepts in statistics. The first option refers to the concept of standard deviation instead of variance, which indeed measures the average distance from the mean but is not the definition of variance. The third choice talks about the range, which simply measures the distance between the highest and lowest values, rather than the overall spread of the data set. The fourth option relates to frequency distribution, which counts how often each value occurs in the data but does not provide information about variability or dispersion.