In
probability theory
Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...
and
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
, the exponential distribution or negative exponential distribution is the
probability distribution
In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is a Function (mathematics), function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of possible events for an Experiment (probability theory), experiment. It is a mathematical descri ...
of the distance between events in a
Poisson point process
In probability theory, statistics and related fields, a Poisson point process (also known as: Poisson random measure, Poisson random point field and Poisson point field) is a type of mathematical object that consists of points randomly located ...
, i.e., a process in which events occur continuously and independently at a constant average rate; the distance parameter could be any meaningful mono-dimensional measure of the process, such as time between production errors, or length along a roll of fabric in the weaving manufacturing process. It is a particular case of the
gamma distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the gamma distribution is a versatile two-parameter family of continuous probability distributions. The exponential distribution, Erlang distribution, and chi-squared distribution are special cases of the g ...
. It is the continuous analogue of the
geometric distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the geometric distribution is either one of two discrete probability distributions:
* The probability distribution of the number X of Bernoulli trials needed to get one success, supported on \mathbb = \;
* T ...
, and it has the key property of being
memoryless
In probability and statistics, memorylessness is a property of probability distributions. It describes situations where previous failures or elapsed time does not affect future trials or further wait time. Only the geometric and exponential d ...
. In addition to being used for the analysis of Poisson point processes it is found in various other contexts.
The exponential distribution is not the same as the class of
exponential families
In probability and statistics, an exponential family is a parametric set of probability distributions of a certain form, specified below. This special form is chosen for mathematical convenience, including the enabling of the user to calculate ...
of distributions. This is a large class of probability distributions that includes the exponential distribution as one of its members, but also includes many other distributions, like the
normal,
binomial
Binomial may refer to:
In mathematics
*Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms
*Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials
*Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition
* ...
,
gamma
Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...
, and
Poisson distributions.
Definitions
Probability density function
The
probability density function
In probability theory, a probability density function (PDF), density function, or density of an absolutely continuous random variable, is a Function (mathematics), function whose value at any given sample (or point) in the sample space (the s ...
(pdf) of an exponential distribution is
:
Here ''λ'' > 0 is the parameter of the distribution, often called the ''rate parameter''. The distribution is supported on the interval . If a
random variable
A random variable (also called random quantity, aleatory variable, or stochastic variable) is a Mathematics, mathematical formalization of a quantity or object which depends on randomness, random events. The term 'random variable' in its mathema ...
''X'' has this distribution, we write .
The exponential distribution exhibits
infinite divisibility
Infinite divisibility arises in different ways in philosophy, physics, economics, order theory (a branch of mathematics), and probability theory (also a branch of mathematics). One may speak of infinite divisibility, or the lack thereof, of matter ...
.
Cumulative distribution function
The
cumulative distribution function
In probability theory and statistics, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a real-valued random variable X, or just distribution function of X, evaluated at x, is the probability that X will take a value less than or equal to x.
Ever ...
is given by
:
Alternative parametrization
The exponential distribution is sometimes parametrized in terms of the
scale parameter
In probability theory and statistics, a scale parameter is a special kind of numerical parameter of a parametric family of probability distributions. The larger the scale parameter, the more spread out the distribution.
Definition
If a family ...
, which is also the mean:
Properties
Mean, variance, moments, and median

The mean or
expected value
In probability theory, the expected value (also called expectation, expectancy, expectation operator, mathematical expectation, mean, expectation value, or first Moment (mathematics), moment) is a generalization of the weighted average. Informa ...
of an exponentially distributed random variable ''X'' with rate parameter ''λ'' is given by
In light of the examples given
below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
*Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
* Bottom (disambiguation)
*Less than
*Temperatures below freezing
*Hell or underworld
People with the surname
* Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general
* Fred Belo ...
, this makes sense; a person who receives an average of two telephone calls per hour can expect that the time between consecutive calls will be 0.5 hour, or 30 minutes.
The
variance
In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable. The standard deviation (SD) is obtained as the square root of the variance. Variance is a measure of dispersion ...
of ''X'' is given by
so the
standard deviation
In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation of the values of a variable about its Expected value, mean. A low standard Deviation (statistics), deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean ( ...
is equal to the mean.
The
moments of ''X'', for
are given by
The
central moment
In probability theory and statistics, a central moment is a moment of a probability distribution of a random variable about the random variable's mean; that is, it is the expected value of a specified integer power of the deviation of the random ...
s of ''X'', for
are given by
where !''n'' is the
subfactorial
In combinatorial mathematics, a derangement is a permutation of the elements of a set in which no element appears in its original position. In other words, a derangement is a permutation that has no fixed points.
The number of derangements of ...
of ''n''
The
median
The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
of ''X'' is given by
where refers to the
natural logarithm
The natural logarithm of a number is its logarithm to the base of a logarithm, base of the e (mathematical constant), mathematical constant , which is an Irrational number, irrational and Transcendental number, transcendental number approxima ...
. Thus the
absolute difference
The absolute difference of two real numbers x and y is given by , x-y, , the absolute value of their difference. It describes the distance on the real line between the points corresponding to x and y, and is a special case of the Lp distance fo ...
between the mean and median is
in accordance with the
median-mean inequality
In probability theory, Chebyshev's inequality (also called the Bienaymé–Chebyshev inequality) provides an upper bound on the probability of deviation of a random variable (with finite variance) from its mean. More specifically, the probability ...
.
Memorylessness property of exponential random variable
An exponentially distributed random variable ''T'' obeys the relation
This can be seen by considering the
complementary cumulative distribution function
In probability theory and statistics, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a real-valued random variable X, or just distribution function of X, evaluated at x, is the probability that X will take a value less than or equal to x.
Ever ...
:
When ''T'' is interpreted as the waiting time for an event to occur relative to some initial time, this relation implies that, if ''T'' is conditioned on a failure to observe the event over some initial period of time ''s'', the distribution of the remaining waiting time is the same as the original unconditional distribution. For example, if an event has not occurred after 30 seconds, the
conditional probability
In probability theory, conditional probability is a measure of the probability of an Event (probability theory), event occurring, given that another event (by assumption, presumption, assertion or evidence) is already known to have occurred. This ...
that occurrence will take at least 10 more seconds is equal to the unconditional probability of observing the event more than 10 seconds after the initial time.
The exponential distribution and the
geometric distribution
In probability theory and statistics, the geometric distribution is either one of two discrete probability distributions:
* The probability distribution of the number X of Bernoulli trials needed to get one success, supported on \mathbb = \;
* T ...
are
the only memoryless probability distributions.
The exponential distribution is consequently also necessarily the only continuous probability distribution that has a constant
failure rate
Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. On ...
.
Quantiles

The
quantile function
In probability and statistics, the quantile function is a function Q: ,1\mapsto \mathbb which maps some probability x \in ,1/math> of a random variable v to the value of the variable y such that P(v\leq y) = x according to its probability distr ...
(inverse cumulative distribution function) for Exp(''λ'') is
The
quartile
In statistics, quartiles are a type of quantiles which divide the number of data points into four parts, or ''quarters'', of more-or-less equal size. The data must be ordered from smallest to largest to compute quartiles; as such, quartiles are ...
s are therefore:
* first quartile: ln(4/3)/''λ''
*
median
The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
: ln(2)/''λ''
* third quartile: ln(4)/''λ''
And as a consequence the
interquartile range
In descriptive statistics, the interquartile range (IQR) is a measure of statistical dispersion, which is the spread of the data. The IQR may also be called the midspread, middle 50%, fourth spread, or H‑spread. It is defined as the differen ...
is ln(3)/''λ''.
Conditional Value at Risk (Expected Shortfall)
The conditional value at risk (CVaR) also known as the
expected shortfall
Expected shortfall (ES) is a risk measure—a concept used in the field of financial risk measurement to evaluate the market risk or credit risk of a portfolio. The "expected shortfall at q% level" is the expected return on the portfolio in the wor ...
or superquantile for Exp(''λ'') is derived as follows:
Buffered Probability of Exceedance (bPOE)
The buffered probability of exceedance is one minus the probability level at which the CVaR equals the threshold
. It is derived as follows:
Kullback–Leibler divergence
The directed
Kullback–Leibler divergence
In mathematical statistics, the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence (also called relative entropy and I-divergence), denoted D_\text(P \parallel Q), is a type of statistical distance: a measure of how much a model probability distribution is diff ...
in
nats of
("approximating" distribution) from
('true' distribution) is given by
Maximum entropy distribution
Among all continuous probability distributions with
support
Support may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Supporting character
* Support (art), a solid surface upon which a painting is executed
Business and finance
* Support (technical analysis)
* Child support
* Customer support
* Income Su ...
and mean ''μ'', the exponential distribution with ''λ'' = 1/''μ'' has the largest
differential entropy
Differential entropy (also referred to as continuous entropy) is a concept in information theory that began as an attempt by Claude Shannon to extend the idea of (Shannon) entropy (a measure of average surprisal) of a random variable, to continu ...
. In other words, it is the
maximum entropy probability distribution
In statistics and information theory, a maximum entropy probability distribution has entropy that is at least as great as that of all other members of a specified class of probability distributions. According to the principle of maximum entropy, ...
for a
random variate
In probability and statistics, a random variate or simply variate is a particular outcome or ''realization'' of a random variable; the random variates which are other outcomes of the same random variable might have different values ( random numbe ...
''X'' which is greater than or equal to zero and for which E
'X''is fixed.
Distribution of the minimum of exponential random variables
Let ''X''
1, ..., ''X''
''n'' be
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
exponentially distributed random variables with rate parameters ''λ''
1, ..., ''λ
n''. Then
is also exponentially distributed, with parameter
This can be seen by considering the
complementary cumulative distribution function
In probability theory and statistics, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a real-valued random variable X, or just distribution function of X, evaluated at x, is the probability that X will take a value less than or equal to x.
Ever ...
:
The index of the variable which achieves the minimum is distributed according to the categorical distribution
A proof can be seen by letting
. Then,
Note that
is not exponentially distributed, if ''X''
1, ..., ''X''
''n'' do not all have parameter 0.
Joint moments of i.i.d. exponential order statistics
Let
be
independent and identically distributed
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
exponential random variables with rate parameter ''λ''.
Let
denote the corresponding
order statistic
In statistics, the ''k''th order statistic of a statistical sample is equal to its ''k''th-smallest value. Together with Ranking (statistics), rank statistics, order statistics are among the most fundamental tools in non-parametric statistics and ...
s.
For
, the joint moment
of the order statistics
and
is given by
This can be seen by invoking the
law of total expectation
The proposition in probability theory known as the law of total expectation, the law of iterated expectations (LIE), Adam's law, the tower rule, and the smoothing property of conditional expectation, among other names, states that if X is a random ...
and the memoryless property:
The first equation follows from the
law of total expectation
The proposition in probability theory known as the law of total expectation, the law of iterated expectations (LIE), Adam's law, the tower rule, and the smoothing property of conditional expectation, among other names, states that if X is a random ...
.
The second equation exploits the fact that once we condition on
, it must follow that
. The third equation relies on the memoryless property to replace