Written by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 examโขWritten by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Definition
Negative skewness refers to a distribution where the tail of the data is skewed towards the left, indicating that the majority of the data points are concentrated on the right side of the distribution.
Related terms
Positive Skewness: Positive skewness occurs when most of the data points are concentrated on the left side of the distribution, with a long tail stretching towards the right.
Symmetrical Distribution: A symmetrical distribution has an equal number of data points on both sides and does not exhibit any skewness.
Kurtosis: Kurtosis measures how peaked or flat a distribution is compared to a normal distribution. High positive kurtosis indicates heavy tails and more extreme values, while negative kurtosis indicates lighter tails and fewer extreme values.