Median
Middle value.
What does Median mean?
The median is the middle value in a sorted list of numbers. Unlike the mean (average), the median is not affected by extremely large or small values, making it a robust measure of central tendency. It is especially useful when data is skewed or contains outliers — for example, median household income gives a better picture of typical earnings than mean income.
How to calculate Median
To find the median, sort all values from smallest to largest. If there is an odd number of values, the median is the middle one. If there is an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle values. For example, the median of [3, 7, 9] is 7. The median of [3, 7, 9, 15] is (7 + 9) / 2 = 8.
FAQ
The mean is the sum of all values divided by the count, while the median is the middle value when the data is sorted. The mean is sensitive to outliers, whereas the median is not. For example, incomes of $30k, $40k, $50k, and $1M have a mean of $280k but a median of $45k — the median better represents the typical value.
Use the median when your data is skewed or has outliers. Common examples include income distributions, home prices, and response times. The median gives a more representative "typical" value in these cases because it is not pulled toward extreme values.
Yes. When there is an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle values, which may not appear in the original data. For example, the median of [2, 4, 6, 8] is (4 + 6) / 2 = 5, which is not in the data set.
The range is the difference between the maximum and minimum values in your data set (Range = Max − Min). It provides a quick measure of how spread out your values are. A large range indicates high variability, while a small range suggests the values are clustered closely together.
Duplicate values are treated as separate entries. For example, the data set [5, 5, 5, 10, 20] has five values, and the median is the third value when sorted, which is 5. Duplicates do not need to be removed before calculating the median.
Related calculators
- Mean— Average value.
- Mode— Most frequent value.
- Standard Deviation— Spread of values.
- Variance— Squared dispersion measure.