What Is Median?
The median is a measure of central tendency that separates a data set into two equal halves. It is the middle value when all data points are arranged in ascending or descending order. In the case of an even number of observations, the median is the average of the two middle numbers.
Example: For the data set [1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9], the median is 6. If the data set were [1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8], the median would be (3+6)/2 = 4.5
Usage: The median is often used in statistical analyses to provide a measure of the “typical” value in a distribution, particularly when the data set may contain outliers that could heavily influence the mean. It is also used to calculate the median absolute deviation (MAD), which is a measure of dispersion that is less sensitive to outliers than the standard deviation.
See also