What is the difference between “Average” and “Median” figures? (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between “Average” and “Median” figures? ›

The average is calculated by adding up all of the individual values and dividing this total by the number of observations. The median is calculated by taking the “middle” value, the value for which half of the observations are larger and half are smaller.

Average and median are two basic terms frequently used in statistics. The median is the middle value in a set, whereas the average is the arithmetic mean of a set of numbers. Median and Average are two essential terms in statistics, and they are used frequently.

For a data set, it may be thought of as the “middle" value. The basic feature of the median in describing data compared to the mean (often simply described as the "average") is that it is not skewed by a small proportion of extremely large or small values, and therefore provides a better representation of the center.

If you place a set of numbers in order, the median number is the middle one. If there are two middle numbers, the median is the mean of those two numbers.

Of the three statistics, the mean is the largest, while the mode is the smallest. Again, the mean reflects the skewing the most. The mean is affected by outliers that do not influence the median. Therefore, when the distribution of data is skewed to the left, the mean is often less than the median.

WHAT CAN THE MEDIAN TELL YOU? The median provides a helpful measure of the centre of a dataset. By comparing the median to the mean, you can get an idea of the distribution of a dataset. When the mean and the median are the same, the dataset is more or less evenly distributed from the lowest to highest values.

Finding the median

To find the median: Arrange the data points from smallest to largest. If the number of data points is odd, the median is the middle data point in the list. If the number of data points is even, the median is the average of the two middle data points in the list.

The median is the middle value in a set of data. First, organize and order the data from smallest to largest. Divide the number of observations by two to find the midpoint value. Round the number up if there's an odd number of observations and the value in that position is the median.

The median is the most informative measure of central tendency for skewed distributions or distributions with outliers. For example, the median is often used as a measure of central tendency for income distributions, which are generally highly skewed.

For example, the median of 3, 3, 5, 9, 11 is 5. If there is an even number of observations, then there is no single middle value; the median is then usually defined to be the mean of the two middle values: so the median of 3, 5, 7, 9 is (5+7)/2 = 6.

Is median or average more accurate for income? ›

Median income is seen as a more accurate measure of how Americans are actually doing financially than average household income. That's because the average household income can be skewed by the inclusion of a few multi-millionaires or even billionaires, which would drag the average much higher than reality.

An Average can be defined as the sum of all numbers divided by the total number of values. A mean can be defined as an average of the set of values in a sample of data. In other words, an average is also called the arithmetic mean. Describing the average is called a mean.

If the outliers in a data set are larger values, then the distribution will be positively skewed, as shown in Figure B. In this case, the mean has been pulled to the right with the extremely large values. The mean is larger than the median in a positively skewed distribution.

Fortunately, we can apply a nice rule here. It says: If the numbers in a set are equally spaced, then the median and mean of that set are equal.