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Home > A Review of the Principles of Statistics > Non-Graphical Exploratory Data Analysis > Measures of Central Tendency

Measures of Central Tendency

Measures of central tendency are some of the most basic and useful statistical functions. They
summarize a sample or population by a single typical value.
The two most commonly used measures of central tendency for numerical data are the mean
and the median.
Mean: The average of all data points
Median: The data point where half of the data lies above and half below it
Mode: The most common value in the data

Mean

Synonyms: average, arithmetic mean.

Gives an “expected value” (not literally)
The sample mean, written as X ¯
, equals the sum of observations divided by the size of the
sample.
n
∑ Xi
i=1
¯
X =
n

The population mean, written as μ, is analogous to the sample mean, but for the whole
population.
So for our 1 bedroom apartment data: X ¯
= $5505 / 15 = $367

Median

Also known as 50th percentile, the sample median is the middle number (or the arithmetic
mean of the two middle numbers in the case of an even number of observations) when the
observations are written out in order.
The population median is the 50th percentile in the whole population.
Order the values from the smallest to the largest, and find the median. For our 1 bedroom
appartment example: $375 is the median; there are seven values above and below this value.

Mean vs. Median

DIFFERENCES SIMILARITIES
The mean is somewhat more Both tell about where the “typical” or
“mathematically tractable” (works “central” value in a distribution is
better with some statistical found.
procedures). For a symmetric distribution such as
The median is more resistant to the normal distribution, the mean
outliers. and the median are the same
The median and mean have slightly number.
different interpretations.

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Example of Resistance to Outliers

The mean of 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15 is about 7.57.
The mean of 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 150 is about 26.86.
The median of either data set is 7.
Most statisticians would say that in this situation the median is the better measure of central
tendency to use. (Of course, it is best to report both.)

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