Separate numbers with commas, spaces or new lines. Use plain numbers without thousands separators, for example 100000 rather than 1,00,000.
Average (mean)
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How to calculate the average
The word "average" usually means the mean, but median and mode are also common ways to describe the centre of a set of numbers. This calculator gives you all three, plus the sum, count and range.
Mean
Add up all the numbers and divide by how many there are.
Example: for 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 the sum is 108 and there are 6 numbers, so the mean is 108 ÷ 6 = 18.
Median
Sort the numbers from smallest to largest. The median is the middle number. If there is an even count, it is the average of the two middle numbers.
Example: in the sorted list 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 the middle two numbers are 15 and 16, so the median is 15.5.
Mode
The mode is the number that appears most often. A list can have one mode, several modes, or none if every number appears only once.
Example: in 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 3 the number 3 appears three times, so the mode is 3.
Range
Which average should you use?
- Mean works well for evenly spread data such as test scores or daily temperatures.
- Median is better when a few very large or very small values would pull the mean off, such as incomes or house prices.
- Mode is useful for finding the most common value, such as the most popular shoe size.