What Is Percentage Variance?
"Percentage variance" means two different things depending on who is asking. In statistics it usually means the spread of a data set expressed as a percentage of its mean, which is the coefficient of variation: a value of 5% means the standard deviation is 5% of the average. In budgeting and finance it means how far an actual figure is from a planned one, as a percentage of the plan. The calculator above computes the first. Both are explained below with worked examples. The data-set examples use the sample standard deviation.