How to calculate the

mean, mode and median

Premalatha nair

Measure
The Mean
To find the mean, you
need to add up all the
data, and then divide
this total by the number
of values in the data.

Set A
2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8

Set B
2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7

Adding the numbers up

gives:
2+2+3+5+5+7+8
= 32
There are 7 values, so
you divide
the total by 7: 32 7 =
4.57...

Adding the numbers up

gives:
2+3+3+4+6+7=
25
There are 6 values, so
you divide
the total by 6: 25 6 =
4.166...

So the mean is 4.57 (2

d.p.)

So the mean is 4.17 (2

d.p.)

Measure
The Median
To find the median, you
need to put the values
in order, then find the
middle value. If there are
two values in the middle
then you find the mean
of these two values.

Set A
2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8
The numbers in order:
2 , 2 , 3 , (5) , 5 , 7 , 8
The middle value is
marked in
brackets, and it is 5.
So the median is 5

Set B
2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7
The numbers in order:
2 , 3 , (3 , 4) , 6 , 7
This time there are two
values in
the middle. They have been
put
in brackets. The median is
found
by calculating the mean of
these
two values: (3 + 4) 2 =
3.5
So the median is 3.5

Measure
The Mode
The mode is the value
which appears the most
often in the data. It is
possible to have more
than one mode if there
is more than one value
which appears the most.

Set A
2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8

Set B
2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7

The data values:

2,2,3,5,5,7,8
The values which appear
most
often are 2 and 5. They
both
appear more time than any
of the other data values.

The data values:

2,3,3,4,6,7
This time there is only one
value
which appears most often the
number 3. It appears more
times
than any of the other data
values.

So the modes are 2 and 5

So the mode is 3

Measure
The Range
To find the range, you
first need to find the
lowest and highest
values
in the data. The range is
found by subtracting the
lowest value from the
highest value.

Set A
2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8

Set B
2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7

The data values:

2,2,3,5,5,7,8
The lowest value is 2
and the
highest value is 8.
Subtracting
the lowest from the
highest
gives: 8 - 2 = 6

The data values:

2,3,3,4,6,7
The lowest value is 2
and the
highest value is 7.
Subtracting
the lowest from the
highest
gives: 7 - 2 = 5

So the range is 6

So the range is 5

Example
A dice was rolled 20 times. On each roll the dice shows a value from 1
to 6.
The results have been recorded in the table below:
Number of
times each
Value
Frequency
value occurred
1
3

How do you get the mean?

Value

Frequen
cy

Value x
F

13=3

25=
10

32=6

4x4=
16

5x3=
15

6x3=
18

Total

20

68

To get the
mean: 68
divide by 20 =
3.4

How do you get the

median?
10th
value =
3
(3+5+2=
10)
11th
value =
4
(3+5+2+
4 =14)

Value

Frequen
cy

Value x
F

13=3

25=
10

32=6

4x4=
16

5x3=
15

6x3=
18

20

68

6
There are 20
Total
values.. Middle
value = 10 +
11

Median = 3 + 4 =
3.5
_____
2

What is the mode?

Value

Frequency

The mode is 2
because it has
the highest
frequency

Practice
Encik Jeeva gave a test to a group of
students. The table below shows the
number of scores obtained by the
students (30 students).
40 35 44 65 68 90 87 92 20
44 67 54
41 54 34 67 71 45 69 56 45
67 34 34
42 56 78 79 50 40

value

frequency

V x F

20

20

34

102

35

35

40

80

41

41

42

42

44

88

45

90

50

50

54

108

56

112

65

65

67

201

68

68

69

69

71

71

78

78

79

79

87

87

90

90

92

92

Total

30

1668

Mean = 1668
______
30

Median: middle number

30
__
2

= 15 and 16

= 54

Standard Deviation

s
Xi

Each value

Number of values in the data

Mean

How to calculate
1. Find the average of the data set (x-)
2. Take each value in the data set (x) and
subtract the mean from it to get (xi x-)
3. Square each of the differences (xi x-)2
4. Add up all the results from step 3 to get
the sum of squares (xi x-)2
5. Divide the sum of squares by the
numbers in the data set minus one (n-1)
6. Take the square root to get

example
Quiz scores: 1 3 5
Mean = 16 /4 = 4

Substract

squaring

1-4

-3

3-4

-1

5-4

7-4

20

n =4
n-1 = 3

20/3= 6.67 variance

Square root of 6.67 = 2.58
(standard deviation)

Statistics [Raw (Percent out of 50)]:

Mean: 34.09 (68.18%)
Median: 35 (70%)
Spread: 7.96 (15.92%)