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Insight Horizon Media

How do you use Grubbs test to detect outliers?

Author

Michael Henderson

Published Mar 02, 2026

How do you use Grubbs test to detect outliers?

To start the Grubbs test go to the menu Testing outliers / Grubbs test. In the General tab, select the data and the Grubbs test option (the Double Grubbs test can be used to detect two outliers). As an alternative hypothesis choose the two-sided option. The default significance level is left as is: 5%.

What is Grubbs test used for?

Grubbs’ test (Grubbs 1969 and Stefansky 1972) is used to detect a single outlier in a univariate data set that follows an approximately normal distribution.

Can Excel do a Grubbs test?

The following screenshot shows how to create a histogram in Excel using the Data Analysis ToolPak: What is this? From the histogram, we can see that the data is roughly normally distributed. This means that we can go ahead and conduct Grubbs’ Test.

What does P value in Grubbs test mean?

Grubbs’ test statistic (G) is the difference between the sample mean and either the smallest or largest data value, divided by the standard deviation. Minitab uses Grubbs’ test statistic to calculate the p-value, which is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true.

How do you test for outliers?

The most effective way to find all of your outliers is by using the interquartile range (IQR). The IQR contains the middle bulk of your data, so outliers can be easily found once you know the IQR.

Does Grubbs test use degrees of freedom?

The Grubbs test statistic is the largest absolute deviation from the sample mean in units of the sample standard deviation. with tα/(2N),N−2 denoting the upper critical value of the t-distribution with N − 2 degrees of freedom and a significance level of α/(2N).

Does Grubbs test require normal distribution?

Definition. Grubbs’s test is based on the assumption of normality. That is, one should first verify that the data can be reasonably approximated by a normal distribution before applying the Grubbs test. Grubbs’s test detects one outlier at a time.

How do you conduct a Grubbs test?

Basically, the steps are:

  1. Find the G test statistic.
  2. Find the G Critical Value.
  3. Compare the test statistic to the G critical value.
  4. Reject the point as an outlier if the test statistic is greater than the critical value.

What is Grubbs?

Grubbs, who published the test in 1950), also known as the maximum normalized residual test or extreme studentized deviate test, is a test used to detect outliers in a univariate data set assumed to come from a normally distributed population.