Which statistical measure indicates the degree of variation or dispersion of a set of values?

The measure that indicates the degree of variation or dispersion of a set of values is the standard deviation. It quantifies how much the values in a dataset deviate from the mean, providing insight into the spread of the data points around the average. A low standard deviation suggests that the values tend to be close to the mean, while a high standard deviation indicates that the values are spread out over a wider range.

The mean, while a useful measure of central tendency, does not provide information on the variability of the data. The median also represents central tendency and specifically indicates the middle value of a sorted dataset, without reflecting how the data values vary. The mode, which represents the most frequently occurring value in a set, similarly does not convey any information about the distribution or dispersion of the other values within the dataset. Therefore, standard deviation is the appropriate measure for assessing variation or dispersion.