Quick answer: For 3, 7, 7, 2, 9, 4, 7, 5 the mean is 44 ÷ 8 = 5.5, the median is (5 + 7) ÷ 2 = 6, the mode is 7 and the range is 9 − 2 = 7.
How it's calculated
Mean: add the values and divide by how many there are. Median: sort the values and take the middle one; with an even count, average the two middle values. Mode: the value that appears most often (there can be several, or none if every value appears once). Range: largest minus smallest.
The median is not affected by a few extreme values, so for skewed data such as salaries or house prices it often describes a typical value better than the mean.
For spread, see the standard deviation calculator; for quartiles and the interquartile range, use the statistics calculator.
Worked examples
- 3, 7, 7, 2, 9, 4, 7, 5: mean 5.5, median 6, mode 7, range 7
- 10, 20, 30, 40, 1000: mean 220, median 30 (the outlier pulls the mean up)
- 1, 2, 2, 3, 3: two modes: 2 and 3
Frequently asked questions
What if there is no mode?
If every value appears exactly once, the list has no mode. If two or more values tie for most frequent, all of them are modes.
How do I find the median of an even number of values?
Sort the list and average the two middle values. For 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 7, 9 the middle values are 5 and 7, so the median is 6.
Which is better, mean or median?
Use the mean for roughly symmetric data and the median when there are outliers or a long tail on one side.
What are the mean, median and mode of 3, 7, 7, 2, 9, 4, 7, 5?
The mean is 5.5, the median is 6 (halfway between the middle values 5 and 7) and the mode is 7, which turns up three times.
What is the range?
Biggest value minus smallest. For the list above it's 9 − 2 = 7. It's the quickest way to see how spread out things are.
Can there be more than one mode?
Yes. If two values tie for most common, the list is bimodal and both of them count.