About Lesson
Choosing the Best Measure of Central Tendency: Mean, Median, or Mode
Choosing Between Mean, Median, and Mode
| Measure | What It Tells | When to Use It | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | The average (total ÷ number of values) | When the numbers are close together and there are no outliers | Average test scores |
| Median | The middle number | When there are outliers or very large/small numbers | Average income in a town |
| Mode | The most frequent number | When you want the most popular or repeated value | Most common shoe size in a class |
An outlier is a value in a data set that is much higher or much lower than most of the other values. It stands out and doesn’t fit the general pattern.
Example:
Data set:
5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 100
✅ Most of the numbers are close together.
❌ But 100 is way higher — it’s an outlier.
Which Measure Should You Use?
1. Your data is evenly distributed, no outliers
✅ Choose: Mean
❌ Median
❌ Mode
2. Your data has extreme values or outliers
✅ Choose: Median
❌ Mean
❌ Mode
3. You’re working with categories or non-numerical data
✅ Choose: Mode
❌ Mean
❌ Median
4. You want the average value of test scores
✅ Choose: Mean
❌ Median
❌ Mode
5. You want the middle income in a city with very rich and very poor residents
✅ Choose: Median
❌ Mean
❌ Mode
6. You want the most popular shoe size in a store
✅ Choose: Mode
❌ Mean
❌ Median
7. You want to find the most common birthday month in a class
✅ Choose: Mode
❌ Mean
❌ Median
8. You’re analyzing salaries, and there’s a billionaire on the list
✅ Choose: Median
❌ Mean
❌ Mode
9. You want the typical number of goals scored per match across a season
✅ Choose: Mean
❌ Median
❌ Mode
10. You’re looking at the favorite ice cream flavors of students
✅ Choose: Mode
❌ Mean
❌ Median
11. You want to describe the center of a small, symmetric data set
✅ Choose: Mean
❌ Median
❌ Mode
12. You want to describe housing prices, but one house is a mansion
✅ Choose: Median
❌ Mean
❌ Mode
