Covariance is a measure of
the relationship between two ranges of data. The Covariance analysis tool
returns the average of the product of deviations of data points from their
respective means.
You can use the covariance tool to determine whether two ranges of data move
together — that is, whether large values of one set are associated with
large values of the other (positive covariance), whether small values of one
set are associated with large values of the other (negative covariance), or
whether values in both sets are unrelated (covariance near zero).
Note
To return the covariance for individual data point pairs, use the COVAR
worksheet function.
