How the average Calculator works
The mean adds every value and divides by the count, while the median is the middle value once sorted. When the two disagree noticeably, your data has outliers pulling the mean, and the median is usually the fairer summary.
Mean = sum ÷ count
Example: the six test scores 88, 92, 75, 96, 84, 90 sum to 525, a mean of 87.5 and a median of 89.
Frequently asked questions
Mean vs median, which should I use?
Use the mean for symmetric data and the median when outliers or skew exist, which is why home prices and incomes are always reported as medians.
How do I average percentages or rates?
Only average them directly if they describe equally sized groups. Otherwise weight each percentage by its group size, or you get the classic averaging-averages error.
What is a weighted average?
Each value is multiplied by an importance weight before dividing by total weight. Course grades and GPAs work exactly this way, and our GPA calculator handles it.