In statistics, the standard score is the signed number of standard deviations an observation or datum is above the mean. A positive standard score indicates a datum above the mean, while a negative standard score indicates a datum below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity obtained by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation. This conversion process is called standardizing or normalizing (however, "normalizing" can refer to many types of ratios; see normalization (statistics) for more).