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Resources / Lessons / Math / Statistics and Probability / Averages
MATH
Elementary Math Averages

In statistics, an average is defined as the number that measures the central tendency of a given set of
Prealgebra
numbers. There are a number of different averages including but not limited to: mean, median, mode
Algebra and range.
Geometry
Mean
Trigonometry
Mean is what most people commonly refer to as an average. The mean refers to the number you
Precalculus obtain when you sum up a given set of numbers and then divide this sum by the total number in the
set. Mean is also referred to more correctly as arithmetic mean.
Calculus
Statistics and
Probability
Introduction
Given a set of n elements from a 1 to a n
Averages
Assumed Mean
Cumulative
The mean is found by adding up all the a's and then dividing by the total number, n
Frequency,
Percentiles and
Quartiles
Dispersion - This can be generalized by the formula below:

Deviation and
Variance
Probability
Probability Distributions Mean Example Problems
https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Expected Value Example 1
Statistics Tutors
Find the mean of the set of numbers below
OTHER CATEGORIES
ENGLISH
Solution
ACCOUNTING
The first step is to count how many numbers there are in the set, which we shall call n
HISTORY
SCIENCE
SPANISH The next step is to add up all the numbers in the set
STUDY SKILLS
TEST PREP
The last step is to find the actual mean by dividing the sum by n
Mean can also be found for grouped data, but before we see an example on that, let us first define
frequency.
Frequency in statistics means the same as in everyday use of the word. The frequency an element in a
set refers to how many of that element there are in the set. The frequency can be from 0 to as many
as possible. If you're told that the frequency an element a is 3, that means that there are 3 as in the
set.
Example 2
Find the mean of the set of ages in the table below
Age (years) Frequency
10 0
11 8
12 3
13 2
14 7
Solution

The first step is to find the total number of ages, which we shall call n. Since it will be tedious to count
all the ages, we can find n by adding up the frequencies:
Next we need to find the sum of all the ages. We can do this in two ways: we can add up each
individual age, which will be a long and tedious process; or we can use the frequency to make things
faster.
Since we know that the frequency represents how many of that particular age there are, we can just
multiply each age by its frequency, and then add up all these products.
The last step is to find the mean by dividing the sum by n
Population Mean vs Sample Mean

In the Introduction to Statistics section, we defined a population and a sample whereby a sample is a
part of a population.
In statistics there are two kinds of means: population mean and sample mean. A population mean is
the true mean of the entire population of the data set while a sample mean is the mean of a small
sample of the population. These different means appear frequently in both statistics and probability and
should not be confused with each other.
Population mean is represented by the Greek letter μ (pronounced mu) while sample mean is
represented by (pronounced x bar ). The total number of elements in a population is represented by N
while the number of elements in a sample is represented by n. This leads to an adjustment in the
formula we gave above for calculating the mean.

The sample mean is commonly used to estimate the population mean when the population mean is
unknown. This is because they have the same expected value.
Median
The median is defined as the number in the middle of a given set of numbers arranged in order of
increasing magnitude. When given a set of numbers, the median is the number positioned in the exact
middle of the list when you arrange the numbers from the lowest to the highest. The median is also a
measure of average. In higher level statistics, median is used as a measure of dispersion. The median
is important because it describes the behavior of the entire set of numbers.
Example 3
Find the median in the set of numbers given below
Solution
From the definition of median, we should be able to tell that the first step is to rearrange the given set
of numbers in order of increasing magnitude, i.e. from the lowest to the highest
Then we inspect the set to find that number which lies in the exact middle.
Lets try another example to emphasize something interesting that often occurs when solving for the
median.
Example 4
Find the median of the given data
Solution
As in the previous example, we start off by rearranging the data in order from the smallest to the
largest.
Next we inspect the data to find the number that lies in the exact middle.

We can see from the above that we end up with two numbers (4 and 5) in the middle. We can solve
for the median by finding the mean of these two numbers as follows:
Mode
The mode is defined as the element that appears most frequently in a given set of elements. Using the
definition of frequency given above, mode can also be defined as the element with the largest
frequency in a given data set.
For a given data set, there can be more than one mode. As long as those elements all have the same
frequency and that frequency is the highest, they are all the modal elements of the data set.
Example 5
Find the Mode of the following data set.
Solution
Mode = 3 and 15
Mode for Grouped Data

As we saw in the section on data, grouped data is divided into classes. We have defined mode as the
element which has the highest frequency in a given data set. In grouped data, we can find two kinds
of mode: the Modal Class, or class with the highest frequency and the mode itself, which we calculate
from the modal class using the formula below.
where
L is the lower class limit of the modal class

f 1 is the frequency of the modal class
f 0 is the frequency of the class before the modal class in the frequency table
f 2 is the frequency of the class after the modal class in the frequency table
h is the class interval of the modal class

Example 6
Find the modal class and the actual mode of the data set below
Number Frequency
1-3 7
4-6 6
7-9 4
10 - 12 2
13 - 15 2
16 - 18 8
19 - 21 1
22 - 24 2
25 - 27 3
28 - 30 2
Solution
Modal class = 10 - 12
where
L = 10
f1 = 9
f0 = 4
f2 = 2
h=3
therefore,
Solving the above using the order of operations:
Range

The range is defined as the difference between the highest and lowest number in a given data set.
Example 7
Find the range of the data set below
Solution
Next (Assumed Mean) >>
Statistics Probability Averages Average Mark favorite
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Mean, Median and Mode from Grouped Frequencies
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Mean, Median and Mode

from Grouped Frequencies
Let's start off with some raw data (not a grouped frequency) ...
Example: Alex did a survey of how many games each of 20 friends

owned, and got this:
9, 15, 11, 12, 3, 5, 10, 20, 14, 6, 8, 8, 12, 12, 18, 15, 6, 9, 18, 11
To find the Mean , add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are:
9+15+11+12+3+5+10+20+14+6+8+8+12+12+18+15+6+9+18+11
Mean =
20
= 11.1
To find the Median , place the numbers in value order and find the middle number (or the mean
of the middle two numbers). In this case the mean of the 10 th and 11 th values:
3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11 , 12, 12, 12, 14, 15, 15, 18, 18, 20:
11 + 11
Median = = 11
2
To find the Mode , or modal value, place the numbers in value order then count how many of
each number. The Mode is the number which appears most often (there can be more than one
https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/frequency-grouped-mean-median-mode.html[2015/09/19 09:22:47 PM]

mode):
3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12 , 14, 15, 15, 18, 18, 20:
12 appears three times, more often than the other values, so Mode = 12
Grouped Frequency Table

Now, let's make a Grouped Frequency Table of Alex's data:
Number of Frequency
games
1-5 2
6 - 10 7
11 - 15 8
16 - 20 3
(It says that 2 of Alex's friends own somewhere between 1 and 5 games, 7 own between 6 and
10 games, etc)
Oh No!
Suddenly all the original data gets lost (naughty pup!)

Only the Grouped Frequency Table survived ...
... can we help Alex calculate the Mean, Median and Mode from just that table?
The answer is ... no we can't. Not accurately anyway. But, we can make estimates.
Estimating the Mean from Grouped Data

So all we have left is:
Number of Frequency
games

1-5 2
6 - 10 7
11 - 15 8
16 - 20 3
The groups (1-5, 6-10, etc) also called class intervals, are of width 5
The numbers 1, 6, 11 and 16 are the lower class boundaries
The numbers 5, 10, 15 and 20 are the upper class boundaries
The midpoints are halfway between the lower and upper class boundaries
So the midpoints are 3, 8, 13 and 18
We can estimate the Mean by using the midpoints.
So, how does this work?
Think about Alex's 7 friends who are in the group 6 - 10: all we know is that they each have
between 6 and 10 games:
Maybe all seven of them have 6 games,

Maybe all seven of them have 10 games,
But it is more likely that there is a spread of numbers: some have 6, some have 7, and so
on
So we take an average: we assume that all seven of them have 8 games (8 is the average of 6
and 10), which is the midpoint of the group.
So, we could make the table in a different way:
Midpoint Frequency
3 2
8 7
13 8
18 3
Now we think "2 people have 3 games, 7 people have 8 games, 8 people have 13 games and 3
people have 18 games", so we imagine the data looks like this:
3, 3, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 18, 18, 18
Now we can add them all up and divide by 20. This is the quick way to do it:

Midpoint Frequency
x f fx
3 2 6
8 7 56
13 8 104
18 3 54
Totals: 20 220
So an estimate of the mean number of games is:
220
Estimated Mean = = 11
20
Estimating the Median from Grouped Data

To estimate the Median, let's look at our data again:
Number of Frequency
games
1-5 2
6 - 10 7
11 - 15 8
16 - 20 3
The median is the mean of the middle two numbers (the 10 th and 11 th values) ...
... and they are both in the 11 - 15 group:
We can say "the median group is 11 - 15"
But if we need to estimate a single Median value we can use this formula:
(n/2) − cf b
Estimated Median = L + × w
fm
where:

L is the lower class boundary of the group containing the median

n is the total number of data
cf b is the cumulative frequency of the groups before the median group
f m is the frequency of the median group
w is the group width
For our example:
L = 11
n = 20
cf b = 2 + 7 = 9
fm = 8
w=5
(20/2) − 9
Estimated Median = 11 + × 5
8
= 11 + (1/8) x 5
= 11.625
Estimating the Mode from Grouped Data

Again, looking at our data:
Number of Frequency
games
1-5 2
6 - 10 7
11 - 15 8
16 - 20 3
We can easily find the modal group (the group with the highest frequency), which is 11 - 15
We can say "the modal group is 11 - 15"
But the actual Mode may not even be in that group! Or there may be more than one mode.
Without the raw data we don't really know.
But, we can estimate the Mode using the following formula:

f m − f m-1
Estimated Mode = L + × w
(f m − f m-1) + (f m − f m+1 )
where:
L is the lower class boundary of the modal group

f m-1 is the frequency of the group before the modal group
f m is the frequency of the modal group
f m+1 is the frequency of the group after the modal group
In this example:
L = 11
f m-1 = 7
fm = 8
f m+1 = 3
w=5
8−7
Estimated Mode = 11 + × 5
(8 − 7) + (8 − 3)
= 11 + (1/6) × 5
= 11.833...
Our final result is:

Estimated Mean: 11
Estimated Median: 11.625
Estimated Mode: 11.833...
(Compare that with the true Mean, Median and Mode of 11.1, 11 and 12 that we
got at the very start.)
And that is how it is done.
Now let us look at two more special examples, and get some more practice along the way!

Continuous Data
Data can be Discrete or Continuous :
Discrete data can only take certain values, like our previous example (games owned)
Continuous data can take any value (within a range), such as length or weight
Continuous data can be treated in exactly the same way as discrete data, but with one
important difference.
The difference concerns the class boundaries.
Example: You grew fifty baby carrots using special soil. You
dig them up and measure their lengths (to the nearest mm)
and group the results :
Length
Frequency
(mm)
150 - 154 5
155 - 159 2
160 - 164 6
165 - 169 8
170 - 174 9
175 - 179 11
180 - 184 6
185 - 189 3
Now, what does "155 - 159" mean?
The clue is "to the nearest mm".
A length of 154.5 mm is rounded up to 155 mm (and placed in 155 - 159),

Similarly 159.49 mm is rounded down to 159 mm (and also be placed in 155 - 159).
So lengths from 154.5 up to (but not including) 159.5 get placed in 155 - 159
And so for continuous data "155 - 159" has two types of numbers at the beginning and end:
the lower class boundary of 155 and the upper class boundary of 159
the lower class limit of 154.5 and upper class limit of 159.5

Note that the upper class limit of one class interval is the lower class limit of the next class
interval.
So, how does this affect our calculations?
The Mean is not affected

But the Median and Mode now have L = Lower class limit (rather than Lower class
boundary)
Now let's go:
Mean
Length Midpoint Frequency

(mm) x f fx
150 - 154 152 5 760
155 - 159 157 2 314
160 - 164 162 6 972
165 - 169 167 8 1336
170 - 174 172 9 1548
175 - 179 177 11 1947
180 - 184 182 6 1092
185 - 189 187 3 561
Totals: 50 8530
8530
Estimated Mean = = 170.6 mm
50
Median
The Median is the mean of the 25 th and the 26 th length, so is in the 170 - 174 group:
L = 169.5 (the lower class limit of the 170 - 174 group)

n = 50
cf b = 5 + 2 + 6 + 8 = 21
fm = 9
w=5

(50/2) − 21
Estimated Median = 169.5 + × 5
9
= 169.5 + 2.22...
= 171.7 mm (to 1 decimal)
Mode
The Modal group is the one with the highest frequency, which is 175 - 179:
L = 174.5 (the lower class limit of the 175 - 179 group)

f m-1 = 9
f m = 11
f m+1 = 6
w=5
11 − 9
Estimated Mode = 174.5 + × 5
(11 − 9) + (11 − 6)
= 174.5 + 1.42...
= 175.9 mm (to 1 decimal)
Ages
Age is a special case.
When we say "Sarah is 17" she stays "17" up until her eighteenth birthday.
She might be 17 years and 364 days old and still be called "17".
In other words, even though "age" is a continuous variable (time), we treat it as discrete.
Example: The ages of the 112 people who live on a tropical island
are grouped as follows:
Age Number
0-9 20
10 - 19 21
20 - 29 23

30 - 39 16
40 - 49 11
50 - 59 10
60 - 69 7
70 - 79 3
80 - 89 1
A child in the first group 0 - 9 could be almost 10 years old. So the midpoint for this group is 5
not 4.5
The midpoints are 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75 and 85
Similarly, in the calculations of Median and Mode, we will use the class boundaries 0, 10, 20 etc
Mean
Age Midpoint Number

x f fx
0-9 5 20 100
10 - 19 15 21 315
20 - 29 25 23 575
30 - 39 35 16 560
40 - 49 45 11 495
50 - 59 55 10 550
60 - 69 65 7 455
70 - 79 75 3 225
80 - 89 85 1 85
Totals: 112 3360
3360
Estimated Mean = = 30
112
Median
The Median is the mean of the ages of the 56 th and the 57 th people, so is in the 20 - 29 group:
L = 20 (the lower class boundary of the class interval containing the median)
n = 112

cf b = 20 + 21 = 41
f m = 23
w = 10
(112/2) − 41
Estimated Median = 20 + × 10
23
= 20 + 6.52...
= 26.5 (to 1 decimal)
Mode
The Modal group is the one with the highest frequency, which is 20 - 29:
L = 20 (the lower class boundary of the modal class)

f m-1 = 21
f m = 23
f m+1 = 16
w = 10
23 − 21
Estimated Mode = 20 + × 10
(23 − 21) + (23 − 16)
= 20 + 2.22...
= 22.2 (to 1 decimal)
Summary
For grouped data, we cannot find the exact Mean, Median and Mode, we can only
give estimates.
To estimate the Mean use the midpoints of the class intervals.
(n/2) − cf b
Estimated Median = L + × w
fm
where:
L is the lower class boundary of the group containing the median

n is the total number of data

cf b is the cumulative frequency of the groups before the median group
f m is the frequency of the median group
f m − f m-1
Estimated Mode = L + × w
(f m − f m-1) + (f m − f m+1 )
where:
L is the lower class boundary of the modal group

f m-1 is the frequency of the group before the modal group
f m is the frequency of the modal group
f m+1 is the frequency of the group after the modal group
For continuous data use limits (rather than boundaries) for median and mode
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Statistics (High School Statistics, Hard)
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The ages of the 100 inhabitants of a village were grouped and recorded as follows:
Estimate the modal age correct to the nearest six months.
Note Age is continuous, but we treat it as if it is discrete.
A 24 years 6 months B 24 years
C 23 years 6 months D 23 years
Use pen and paper to work out the answer
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The masses of 80 parcels were each measured to the nearest tenth of a kilogram, and the results
recorded in groups as follows:
Estimate the modal mass correct to 1 decimal place.
A 21.5 kg B 21.6 kg
C 21.7 kg D 21.8 kg
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The numbers of words in each of the first eighty sentences of a book were counted.
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Estimate the median length of sentence correct to 1 decimal place.
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Sammy caught ten rainbow trout, measured their lengths to the nearest inch, and recorded his
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Use the midpoints of the groups to estimate the mean length of the trout Sammy caught.
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Statistical Averages - Mean, Mode, Median | WyzAnt Resources

TUTORING RESOURCES Become a Student Sign In

Subject (ex: algebra) ZIP

10001 FIND TUTORS

Answers Blogs Files Lessons Videos

Elementary Math Averages

Dispersion - This can be generalized by the formula below:

Probability Distributions Mean Example Problems

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Expected Value Example 1

Find the mean of the set of ages in the table below

Age (years) Frequency

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

The last step is to find the mean by dividing the sum by n

Population Mean vs Sample Mean

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Find the median in the set of numbers given below

Find the median of the given data

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Find the Mode of the following data set.

Mode for Grouped Data

L is the lower class limit of the modal class

h is the class interval of the modal class

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Solving the above using the order of operations:

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Find the range of the data set below

Next (Assumed Mean) >>

Statistics Probability Averages Average Mark favorite

Related Answers Related Blogs Related Lessons

Probability Question because I was tutoring in my Percentiles and Quartiles

dreams last night. Measures of Statistical

exam has written up a final Recommended Statistics Dispersion

exam but wants the Learning Strategies - Statistical Sampling

questions to be random for Experienced Subject Matter

each student. Expert

A box contains 2 red, 3 Homeschool Math Support

white, and 4 blue balls. If 3 and Accelerated Math

balls are drawn at succession Development for Public and

without replacement, Private School Students

determine the probability that Summer Tutoring

all are blue.

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

NEED HELP FINDING A

TUTORS BY LOCATION TUTORS BY SUBJECT

Orange County Washington, DC

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/math/statistics_and_probability/averages[2015/09/19 09:50:35 PM]

Excel Data Analysis

Mean, Median and Mode

Example: Alex did a survey of how many games each of 20 friends

https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/frequency-grouped-mean-median-mode.html[2015/09/19 09:22:47 PM]

Grouped Frequency Table

Suddenly all the original data gets lost (naughty pup!)

Estimating the Mean from Grouped Data

https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/frequency-grouped-mean-median-mode.html[2015/09/19 09:22:47 PM]

We can estimate the Mean by using the midpoints.

So, how does this work?

Maybe all seven of them have 6 games,

So, we could make the table in a different way:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/frequency-grouped-mean-median-mode.html[2015/09/19 09:22:47 PM]

So an estimate of the mean number of games is:

Estimating the Median from Grouped Data

... and they are both in the 11 - 15 group:

We can say "the median group is 11 - 15"