Glossary

Negative Binomial

Negative Binomial:

The negative binomial distribution is the probability distribution of the number of Bernoulli (yes/no) trials required to obtain r successes. Contrast it with the binomial distribution – the probability of x successes in n trials. Also with the Poisson distribution – the probability distribution of the number of events in a given time or space, in which the rate of event occurrence is constant. The negative binomial distribution is widely used in the analysis of count data whose distribution is over-dispersed, with the variance greater than the mean. For example, the distribution of plant or insect specimens, which is often clumped. This has been facilitated by the introduction, since 2000, of many new software routines for count data modeling.

Browse Other Glossary Entries

Test Yourself

Planning on taking an introductory statistics course, but not sure if you need to start at the beginning? Review the course description for each of our introductory statistics courses and estimate which best matches your level, then take the self test for that course. If you get all or almost all the questions correct, move on and take the next test.