Kurtosis is a measure of the "tailedness" of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable. It describes the shape of the distribution's tails and peak.
Mesokurtic
Excess kurtosis = 0, like normal distribution
Leptokurtic
Excess kurtosis > 0, heavy tails, sharp peak
Platykurtic
Excess kurtosis < 0, light tails, flat peak
Fourth Moment
Based on fourth power of deviations from mean
💡 Example: Uniform distribution (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) has negative excess kurtosis (platykurtic). Data with outliers has positive excess kurtosis (leptokurtic).
Applications
StatisticsFinanceRisk ManagementData ScienceQuality Control
Frequently Asked Questions
What is kurtosis?▼
Kurtosis measures the "tailedness" of a probability distribution. High kurtosis means heavy tails and sharp peak; low kurtosis means light tails and flat peak.
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