It is easy to calculate median. The median is another measure of a set of data points. It, like the average or mean gives you some important information about the data in your data set. It is a central tendency measurement of a dataset, like the mean is. However, the median is simply the midpoint of a sorted dataset. Unlike the mean, the median doesn't take into account any data except the midpoint.

An Example Of Median

The median income in California is $62,000.
The median income in Nevada is $49,000.

This might be important information if you are trying to decide which state to live in. The median is a generalization of a given set of data.

Finding The Median

Here are the steps:

1. Sort the data points.
2. Find the data point that is closest to the middle.

Example

Possible Problems Using Median

1. A few extreme data points can skew the mean.
2. Widely deviating data points can make the median meaningless.
3. Users of the median may forget the possibility that it may be skewed.

These are the same problems that the mean or average has. Using the standard deviation solves most of these problems. This not so for the median. The standard deviation may add some meaning to the median, but not much.

Summary

When you calculate median, you have another method of generalizing a lot of data. As long as you are confident that it is not skewed, you can use it by itself as a convenient descriptor of the data.

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