What Is the Median, and How Is It Computed?

What Is the Median, and How Is It Computed?

The median is another measure of central tendency and another type of average. It is the point in a distribution of data where 50% of the cases fall above it and 50% of the cases fall below it. The median is most often represented using the abbreviation Md, but it sometimes appears as M.

To compute the median, follow these steps:

• 1.
  List all of the numbers in descending order, with the largest value at the beginning or top. Here’s an example:

  $87,72,65,45,23$

• 2.
  Select the score that is the midpoint of the set of scores. In this case, it is the third score (with two scores below it and two above it), and the median is 65.

If the ...