Median is a descriptive statistic that researchers commonly use to characterize the data from their studies. Along with the mean (average) and mode, the median constitutes one of the measures of central tendency—a general term for a set of values or measurements located at or near the "middle" of the data set. The median is calculated by sorting the data set from the lowest to highest value and taking the numeric value occurring in the middle of the set of observations. For example, in a data set containing the values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, the median would be the value 5 as it is the value within the data set that appears in the middle—with four observations less than ...