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Average Calculator
Find the mean, median, mode and range of any set of numbers.
There are three different things people call “the average”, and picking the wrong one is how statistics end up misleading. The mean, the median and the mode answer genuinely different questions about the same set of numbers.
Calculating an average
- Paste or type your numbers, separated by commas, spaces or line breaks.
- Read the mean, median, mode and range together rather than picking one.
- Check the count to make sure everything you pasted was recognised.
- Compare the mean and median — a big gap tells you something.
- Copy whichever figure fits the question you are answering.
The three averages
- Mean — add everything up and divide by how many there are. The familiar one, and the one distorted most by extreme values.
- Median — sort the numbers and take the middle one. Unmoved by outliers, which is why it is used for house prices and incomes.
- Mode — the value that appears most often. The only average that works on categories rather than numbers.
- Range — the gap between the highest and lowest value. A quick measure of how spread out the data is.
- Count — how many values you have. Always worth checking — a mean of five numbers is not a finding.
Why the mean and median disagree
Take five salaries: 28,000, 31,000, 33,000, 35,000 and 400,000. The mean is 105,400 — a figure nobody in the room earns. The median is 33,000, which describes the group far more honestly.
Whenever a single extreme value can drag the total around, the median is the more truthful summary. That is precisely why property prices, household incomes and response times are almost always reported as medians. If someone quotes a mean for data like that, it is worth asking why.
Choosing the right one
- Use the mean for data that clusters around a centre, like heights or exam scores.
- Use the median for anything with a long tail: salaries, house prices, page load times.
- Use the mode for categories — the most common answer, product or colour.
- Report the range or standard deviation alongside, or you are hiding the spread.
- Always state how many values the average is based on.
Average questions
What is the difference between mean and average?
In everyday speech they are used interchangeably, and “average” almost always means the arithmetic mean. Strictly, average is the general term and the mean, median and mode are all types of average.
When should I use the median instead of the mean?
Whenever your data has outliers or a long tail. One enormous value can pull a mean far away from anything typical, while the median stays anchored to the middle of the distribution.
Can a data set have more than one mode?
Yes. Two values tied for most frequent makes the set bimodal, and more than two makes it multimodal. If every value appears once, there is no mode at all.
How do I calculate a weighted average?
Multiply each value by its weight, add those products together, and divide by the sum of the weights. This is how course grades are worked out when an exam counts for more than coursework.
Does the order of my numbers matter?
Not for the mean, mode or sum. The median requires the values to be sorted, but the calculator handles that for you.
