Download ArticleDownload ArticleThis article was reviewed by Joseph Meyer. Joseph Meyer is a High School Math Teacher based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is an educator at City Charter High School, where he has been teaching for over 7 years. Joseph is also the founder of Sandbox Math, an online learning community dedicated to helping students succeed in Algebra. His site is set apart by its focus on fostering genuine comprehension through step-by-step understanding (instead of just getting the correct final answer), enabling learners to identify and overcome misunderstandings and confidently take on any test they face. He received his MA in Physics from Case Western Reserve University and his BA in Physics from Baldwin Wallace University.
There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
This article has been viewed 210,121 times.
Mean, median, and mode are values that are commonly used in basic statistics and in everyday math.[1] Though you can find each value pretty easily, it's also easy to mix them up. Read on to learn how to compute each value for a set of data.
Steps
Add up all of the numbers in the set.[2] Let's say you're working with the numbers 2, 3, and 4. Add them up: 2 + 3 + 4 = 9.
Count up the amount of numbers in the set. In this case, you're working with 3 numbers.[3]Advertisement
Divide the sum of the numbers by the amount of numbers. Now take the sum of the numbers, 9, and divide it by the amount of numbers, 3. 9/3 = 3. The mean, or the average of all the numbers in the set, is 3. Remember that you won't always get a nice even number for your answer.[4]
Order all of the numbers in the set from least to greatest.[5] Let's say you're working with the following numbers: 4, 2, 8, 1, 15. Just reorder them in ascending order, like so: 1, 2, 4, 8, 15.
Find the middle number of the set. How you do this will depend on whether you have an even amount of numbers or an odd amount.[6] Here's what you can do in either situation:- If odd, cross out the leftmost number, then the rightmost number, and then repeat. When you have one number left, this is your median. If you're working with the numbers 4, 7, 8, 11, and 21, then 8 is your mode because it's the number in the middle.
- If even, cross out numbers on either side, but you should have two numbers exactly in the middle. Add them together and divide by two for the median value. (If the two numbers in the middle are the same, that number is your median.)[7] If you're working with the numbers 1, 2, 5, 3, 7, and 10, then your two middle numbers are 5 and 3. Add up 5 and 3 to get 8 and divide this result by 2 to get 4 as your median.
Community Q&A
- QuestionIf all the numbers in a set appear once, how do I find the mode?
DonaganTop AnswererAs the article points out, the set is "multi-modal" and thus doesn't have a single mode. - QuestionWhat does modal mean?
Community AnswerModal is just the adjective form of the word mode. So, the modal value in a data set is the same as the mode. - QuestionHow do I calculate the mode in the following dataset?1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2
Community AnswerStart by lining up the data in ascending order, so it's organized in an easily readable fashion: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4. Then, figure out which number appears most often. This is the mode. In your dataset, there are actually two modes -- 1 and 2. They both appear 4 times and nothing else appears more.
Video
Tips
- Ordering the numbers from least to greatest can help you find the median and the mode.Thanks
Tips from our Readers 
- If you have even numbers and don't know how to get median, just find the two middle terms and add them, then divide by 2.
- If the data is in arithmetic progression, the mean is equal to the median, and each number is a mode.
Expert Interview
References
- ↑ https://www.purplemath.com/modules/meanmode.htm
- ↑ https://www.mathsisfun.com/mean.html
- ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-data-statistics/mean-and-median/a/calculating-the-mean
- ↑ https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/statistics/mean-median-mode.php
- ↑ https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/summarizing-quantitative-data/mean-median-basics/a/mean-median-and-mode-review
- ↑ https://www.mathsisfun.com/median.html
- ↑ https://www.mathsisfun.com/median.html
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zm49q6f/articles/z99jpbk
- ↑ https://www.mathsisfun.com/mode.html
About This Article
To find the mean of a group of numbers, count how many numbers are in the set, then add all of those numbers up, and divide the sum by the amount of numbers. To find the median, order all of the numbers in the set from least to greatest. If the set is made of an odd number of integers, the median will be the middle number, and if it’s an even number, add the 2 middle numbers together and divide them by 2 to get the median. For the mode, write down all of the numbers and find the number that occurs the most often. For more tips, including specific examples you can use to practice, read on!
Reader Success Stories
"I had homework and my teacher didn't explain it that well so I came here and it helped me get a 100! Thanks."
Did this article help you?
⚠️ Disclaimer:
Content from Wiki How English language website. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License; additional terms may apply.
Wiki How does not encourage the violation of any laws, and cannot be responsible for any violations of such laws, should you link to this domain, or use, reproduce, or republish the information contained herein.
- - A few of these subjects are frequently censored by educational, governmental, corporate, parental and other filtering schemes.
- - Some articles may contain names, images, artworks or descriptions of events that some cultures restrict access to
- - Please note: Wiki How does not give you opinion about the law, or advice about medical. If you need specific advice (for example, medical, legal, financial or risk management), please seek a professional who is licensed or knowledgeable in that area.
- - Readers should not judge the importance of topics based on their coverage on Wiki How, nor think a topic is important just because it is the subject of a Wiki article.
