Median

A median is different from a mean, an average or a mode. Averages and median are important in statistics and probability, a branch of math.

What is the median?

The median is the middle number in a series of numbers stated in order from least to greatest. An average and a median should not be the same number. However, in some cases, the average is the same as the median as illustrated below.

Example of the median and the average

Example 1

Consider 3, 5 and 7.

• The average of 3, 5 and 7 is 5.
• The median of the three numbers is 5.

Example 2

Consider 3, 5, 7, 9, 11.

• The average of the above 5 numbers is 17.5.
• The median of the three numbers is 7.

How to calculate median?

The median often goes hand in hand with the mean and mode in Mean Median Mode. However, the median is probably the easiest of the three to calculate. To find the median of a series of numbers, there is really no need to calculate median or anything. Just look for the middle number in the series.

Back to Mean Median Mode