Tiotalsperioder

Tiotalsperioder is a term used in data analysis to refer to blocks consisting of ten units, used for aggregating or segmenting sequences of data. The name blends the Swedish tiotal, meaning tens, with perioder, meaning periods, and is sometimes employed in contexts where grouping by tens supports simpler comparison or visualization.

A tiotalsperiod is defined as a consecutive block of ten observations within a data series. For time-based data, the unit could be years, months, or days, depending on the chosen resolution. When forming tiotalsperioder, the series is typically partitioned into non-overlapping blocks of ten, starting from the beginning of the series. If the total number of observations is not a multiple of ten, the final block may be incomplete unless padding or truncation is applied.

Example: a dataset of annual figures from 1980 to 1999 would form two complete tiotalsperioder (1980–1989 and 1990–1999). With a range 1980–1994, the first two blocks would be complete (1980–1989, 1990–1994 would be incomplete unless handled specially).

Applications and variants: tiotalsperioder are used to simplify analyses, such as calculating aggregate statistics, smoothing short-term fluctuations, or producing decadal-like summaries in historical or educational contexts. Variants include overlapping, or sliding, tiotalsperiods, which consider every consecutive ten-unit window, and flexible blocks when data density or reporting periods vary.

Limitations: grouping into fixed tens reduces temporal or ordinal precision and can introduce edge effects depending on how blocks are aligned. The concept is not universally standardized and may be adapted to suit specific data and reporting needs. See also: decade, binning, time-series aggregation.