Median

Median is a statistical term that refers to the middle value in a distribution, arranged in order of magnitude. If there is an even number of observations, the median is the average of the two middle numbers. In the field of statistics, the median is used as a better estimator of the central tendency when a distribution is skewed. If the distribution is symmetric, then the median is equal to the mean.

Definition

The median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample. For a data set, it may be thought of as the "middle" value. For example, in the data set {1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9}, the median is 6, which separates the data into two halves. The data set {6, 8, 9, 9, 10} has the median of 9, which also separates the data into two halves.

Calculation

In order to calculate the median of a set of values, the values must first be arranged in ascending order. If the total number of values in the set is odd, the median is the value in the middle. If the total number of values in the set is even, the median is the average of the two middle values.

Uses

The median can be used in descriptive statistics, probability theory, and many other areas of mathematics and statistics. It is commonly used to provide a robust summary of a set of data values, as it is not significantly affected by outliers.

See also

• Mean
• Mode
• Range
• Variance
• Standard deviation
• Interquartile range

References

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