Coursework help sheets - Spearman’s Rank
    1. Put the two sets of data into the seven columns on the separate sheet.
    2. Subtract column 5 from column 3 to complete column 6 – the difference between the rank orders.
    3. Square the difference of each – column 7 D2 – this gets rid of the minus!
    4. Add all the numbers in the D2 column to give the sum of D2
    5. Next put your final answer into this formula.

    R = the correlation coefficient
    D2 = sum of the square of the differences in rank order
    N = the number of data used (i.e. the number of sample points)
    N3 = 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000

    EXAMPLE - assume the answer for D2 = 62

    R
    =
    1
    -
    6 x (total of D2)
    N3 - N
    R
    =
    1
    -
    6 x 62
    990
    R
    =
    1
    -
    372
    990
    R
    =
    1
    -
    0.38
    R
    =
    0.62

    Answer = 0.62

The result of Spearman’s rank may be anywhere between + 1 and -1. The closer the answer is to +1, the more positive is your correlation or link. In this example, there is a 62% correlation between the two sets of data and this shows the original hypothesis to have been correct.