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What are mean, median, and mode?

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Quick answer

Mean, median, and mode are three ways to find the 'center' of a set of numbers. The mean is the average, the median is the middle value, and the mode is the most common value. Each tells you something different about the data.

Key things to understand

  1. Mean = the average (add up, divide by how many).
  2. Median = the middle value when numbers are in order.
  3. Mode = the value that appears most often.
  4. Each handles outliers and patterns differently.

People also ask

What's the difference between mean, median, and mode?
Mean is the average, median is the middle value, and mode is the most frequent value.
When should you use the median instead of the mean?
When data has extreme outliers — the median better reflects the typical value.
Can a data set have more than one mode?
Yes — if several values tie for most frequent, the data is bimodal or multimodal.