Median / Mode

Median and mode of a list.

How this calculator works

Median is the middle value (average of two middle values for even count). Mode is the most frequent value.

Both are more robust than the mean when data has outliers or clusters.

Unlike the mean, the median isn't affected at all by how extreme an outlier is — a data set's median stays the same whether the highest value is 100 or 100,000, as long as it remains the highest value.

Example

1,2,2,3,4: sorted median = 2, mode = 2 (occurs twice).

Frequently asked questions

Can there be multiple modes?

Yes — bimodal or multimodal distributions. The tool returns all modes with the same top frequency.

What if all values are unique?

Every value is technically a mode; conventionally we say 'no mode'.

Why is median preferred for reporting home prices?

A handful of very expensive homes can drag the average sale price up substantially, while the median reflects the true 'middle of the market' price a typical buyer would encounter.

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