Average Calculator — Mean, Median, Mode

💡 Understanding Mean, Median, and Mode — Three Types of Averages

The arithmetic mean is what most people think of as 'the average' — add up all the numbers and divide by the count. The mean is sensitive to outliers: a single extreme value can significantly shift it. For example, the mean of {1, 2, 3, 4, 100} is 22, even though most values are below 5.

The median is the middle value when the data is sorted in order. If there is an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle values. The median is resistant to outliers, making it a better measure of central tendency for skewed data. For example, the median of {1, 2, 3, 4, 100} is 3 — much more representative of the typical value.

The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset. A dataset can have no mode (all values unique), one mode (unimodal), or multiple modes (bimodal, multimodal). The range is the difference between the maximum and minimum values — a simple measure of data spread. Together, mean, median, mode, and range provide a quick profile of any dataset.