The population standard deviation measures how much variability or dispersion there is in a given population. It quantifies how spread out individual values are around the mean.
Related terms
Sample standard deviation: A measure of variability calculated using data from a subset (sample) of a larger group (population).
Variance: The average of squared deviations from the mean. It is another measure of dispersion.
Normal distribution: A symmetric bell-shaped probability distribution characterized by its mean and standard deviation.