Variance and standard deviation are fundamental concepts in statistics that measure the dispersion or variability of a dataset. Variance quantifies how far each data point is from the mean, providing an average of the squared differences. It helps in understanding the spread of data points within a dataset. Standard deviation, on the other hand, is the square root of variance and offers a more intuitive measure of variability, as it is expressed in the same units as the original data. Together, these metrics are essential for analyzing data distributions and making informed decisions based on statistical analysis.