Analysing Trends and Variability of Employees Provident Fund Dividends

The study investigates the distribution of dividends issued by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), with a particular focus on examining the central tendency, dispersion, and overall distribution shape to provide a clear understanding of the fund’s performance. The analysis, based on historical dividend data (1952 – 2024), seeks to describe the patterns and stability of returns that affect millions of employees relying on EPF for their retirement. Our methodology involved statistical examination of the dataset, employing tools to calculate the mean, median, standard deviation, variance, range, quartiles, skewness, and kurtosis of the EPF dividends. The mean dividend rate was found to be 7.41%, with a standard deviation of 2.96%, reflecting moderate variability around the mean. The median value stood at a slightly higher 8.00%, indicating a skew towards higher dividend rates. The range of dividends was considerable, at 11.5%, with the lowest dividend at 2.5% and the highest at 14.0%. The skewness of the distribution was 0.246, suggesting a symmetrical distribution with a slight inclination towards lower values. Kurtosis was -0.203, revealing a distribution with fewer extreme outliers than a normal distribution would exhibit.