What is the first step in the calculation of standard deviation?

Finding the mean is indeed the first step in the calculation of standard deviation because it provides the central value around which the data is aggregated. The mean serves as a reference point for measuring how each data point deviates from it, which is crucial for the calculation process.

Once the mean is established, the next steps would involve determining the differences between each data point and the mean, squaring those differences, and eventually deriving the standard deviation by taking the square root of the average of these squared differences. This method emphasizes the importance of beginning with the mean to fully understand the dispersion of the data set, making it foundational to the calculation of standard deviation.