The UNIVARIATE Procedure

Estimating Percentiles Using Q-Q Plots

There are two ways to estimate percentiles from a Q-Q plot:

  • Specify the PCTLAXIS option, which adds a percentile axis opposite the theoretical quantile axis. The scale for the percentile axis ranges between 0 and 100 with tick marks at percentile values such as 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95, and 99.

  • Specify the PCTLSCALE option, which relabels the horizontal axis tick marks with their percentile equivalents but does not alter their spacing. For example, on a normal Q-Q plot, the tick mark labeled "0" is relabeled as "50" because the 50th percentile corresponds to the zero quantile.

You can also estimate percentiles by using probability plots created with the PROBPLOT statement. See Example 4.32.