What Is Central Tendency?

Think about how you describe a single piece of numerical data. This is usually done in terms of its
value. For example, in order to describe the number 2, you might put up two fingers or you might say
2 = 1 + 1. How would you describe a group of data? It would not be beneficial to use your fingers in
this instance. Nor is it beneficial to simply add the data together. However, you can describe a group
of data in a single value by using measures of central tendency.
So, what exactly is a measure of central tendency? A measure of central tendency is a single
value that describes the way in which a group of data cluster around a central value. To put in other
words, it is a way to describe the center of a data set. There are three measures of central tendency:
the mean, the median, and the mode.

Measures of Central Tendency

Introduction
A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data
by identifying the central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central
tendency are sometimes called measures of central location. They are also classed as
summary statistics. The mean (often called the average) is most likely the measure of
central tendency that you are most familiar with, but there are others, such as the
median and the mode.

The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of central tendency, but under
different conditions, some measures of central tendency become more appropriate to
use than others. In the following sections, we will look at the mean, mode and median,
and learn how to calculate them and under what conditions they are most appropriate to
be used.

Mean (Arithmetic)
The mean (or average) is the most popular and well known measure of central
tendency. It can be used with both discrete and continuous data, although its use is
most often with continuous data (see our Types of Variable guide for data types). The
mean is equal to the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the number of
values in the data set. So, if we have n values in a data set and they have values x 1, x2,
..., xn, the sample mean, usually denoted by (pronounced x bar), is:
This formula is usually written in a slightly different manner using the Greek capitol
letter, , pronounced "sigma", which means "sum of...":

You may have noticed that the above formula refers to the sample mean. So, why have
we called it a sample mean? This is because, in statistics, samples and populations
have very different meanings and these differences are very important, even if, in the
case of the mean, they are calculated in the same way. To acknowledge that we are
calculating the population mean and not the sample mean, we use the Greek lower
case letter "mu", denoted as :

The mean is essentially a model of your data set. It is the value that is most common.
You will notice, however, that the mean is not often one of the actual values that you
have observed in your data set. However, one of its important properties is that it
minimises error in the prediction of any one value in your data set. That is, it is the value
that produces the lowest amount of error from all other values in the data set.

An important property of the mean is that it includes every value in your data set as part
of the calculation. In addition, the mean is the only measure of central tendency where
the sum of the deviations of each value from the mean is always zero.

When not to use the mean

The mean has one main disadvantage: it is particularly susceptible to the influence of
outliers. These are values that are unusual compared to the rest of the data set by
being especially small or large in numerical value. For example, consider the wages of
staff at a factory below:

Staff 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Salary 15k 18k 16k 14k 15k 15k 12k 17k 90k 95k
The mean salary for these ten staff is $30.7k. However, inspecting the raw data
suggests that this mean value might not be the best way to accurately reflect the typical
salary of a worker, as most workers have salaries in the $12k to 18k range. The mean is
being skewed by the two large salaries. Therefore, in this situation, we would like to
have a better measure of central tendency. As we will find out later, taking the median
would be a better measure of central tendency in this situation.

Another time when we usually prefer the median over the mean (or mode) is when our
data is skewed (i.e., the frequency distribution for our data is skewed). If we consider
the normal distribution - as this is the most frequently assessed in statistics - when the
data is perfectly normal, the mean, median and mode are identical. Moreover, they all
represent the most typical value in the data set. However, as the data becomes skewed
the mean loses its ability to provide the best central location for the data because the
skewed data is dragging it away from the typical value. However, the median best
retains this position and is not as strongly influenced by the skewed values. This is
explained in more detail in the skewed distribution section later in this guide.

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Median
The median is the middle score for a set of data that has been arranged in order of
magnitude. The median is less affected by outliers and skewed data. In order to
calculate the median, suppose we have the data below:

65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45 92

We first need to rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):

14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89 92

Our median mark is the middle mark - in this case, 56 (highlighted in bold). It is the
middle mark because there are 5 scores before it and 5 scores after it. This works fine
when you have an odd number of scores, but what happens when you have an even
number of scores? What if you had only 10 scores? Well, you simply have to take the
middle two scores and average the result. So, if we look at the example below:
 65 55 89 56 35 14 56 55 87 45

We again rearrange that data into order of magnitude (smallest first):

14 35 45 55 55 56 56 65 87 89

Only now we have to take the 5th and 6th score in our data set and average them to get
a median of 55.5.

Mode
The mode is the most frequent score in our data set. On a histogram it represents the
highest bar in a bar chart or histogram. You can, therefore, sometimes consider the
mode as being the most popular option. An example of a mode is presented below:

Normally, the mode is used for categorical data where we wish to know which is the
most common category, as illustrated below:
We can see above that the most common form of transport, in this particular data set, is
the bus. However, one of the problems with the mode is that it is not unique, so it leaves
us with problems when we have two or more values that share the highest frequency,
such as below:
We are now stuck as to which mode best describes the central tendency of the data.
This is particularly problematic when we have continuous data because we are more
likely not to have any one value that is more frequent than the other. For example,
consider measuring 30 peoples' weight (to the nearest 0.1 kg). How likely is it that we
will find two or more people with exactly the same weight (e.g., 67.4 kg)? The answer,
is probably very unlikely - many people might be close, but with such a small sample
(30 people) and a large range of possible weights, you are unlikely to find two people
with exactly the same weight; that is, to the nearest 0.1 kg. This is why the mode is very
rarely used with continuous data.

Another problem with the mode is that it will not provide us with a very good measure of
central tendency when the most common mark is far away from the rest of the data in
the data set, as depicted in the diagram below:
In the above diagram the mode has a value of 2. We can clearly see, however, that the
mode is not representative of the data, which is mostly concentrated around the 20 to
30 value range. To use the mode to describe the central tendency of this data set would
be misleading.

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Skewed Distributions and the Mean and Median

We often test whether our data is normally distributed because this is a common
assumption underlying many statistical tests. An example of a normally distributed set of
data is presented below:

When you have a normally distributed sample you can legitimately use both the mean
or the median as your measure of central tendency. In fact, in any symmetrical
distribution the mean, median and mode are equal. However, in this situation, the mean
is widely preferred as the best measure of central tendency because it is the measure
that includes all the values in the data set for its calculation, and any change in any of
the scores will affect the value of the mean. This is not the case with the median or
mode.

However, when our data is skewed, for example, as with the right-skewed data set
below:
we find that the mean is being dragged in the direct of the skew. In these situations, the
median is generally considered to be the best representative of the central location of
the data. The more skewed the distribution, the greater the difference between the
median and mean, and the greater emphasis should be placed on using the median as
opposed to the mean. A classic example of the above right-skewed distribution is
income (salary), where higher-earners provide a false representation of the typical
income if expressed as a mean and not a median.

If dealing with a normal distribution, and tests of normality show that the data is non-
normal, it is customary to use the median instead of the mean. However, this is more a
rule of thumb than a strict guideline. Sometimes, researchers wish to report the mean of
a skewed distribution if the median and mean are not appreciably different (a subjective
assessment), and if it allows easier comparisons to previous research to be made.

Summary of when to use the mean, median and mode

Please use the following summary table to know what the best measure of central
tendency is with respect to the different types of variable.

Type of Variable Best measure of central tendency

Nominal Mode

Ordinal Median

Interval/Ratio (not skewed) Mean

Interval/Ratio (skewed) Median

For answers to frequently asked questions about measures of central tendency, please
go the next page.