How to Find Mean, Median, and Mode in Excel
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In this tutorial, you will learn how to find mean, median, and mode in excel completely.
When working with a group of numbers in excel, we might sometimes need to calculate their mean, median, and/or mode. If we have mastered the proper method to do the calculation in excel, we can get the results easily and fast.
Do you want to know more about the proper mean, median, and mode calculation method in excel? Read this tutorial until its last part!
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Table of Contents:
What is Mean, Median, and Mode?
Before we discuss how to calculate mean, median, and mode in excel, let’s get to know these variables a bit first!Here is a brief definition for each of the mean, median, and mode.
- Mean: the average of a group of numbers
- Median: the middle number of a group of numbers if we sort them
- Mode: the number(s) that shows up most frequently in a group of numbers
To make the definition above clearer, take a look at the following example.
Let’s say we have this group of numbers.
3 3 8 10 21
What are the mean, median, and mode of these five numbers?
Let us get their mean first. As the mean is the average of numbers, this means we just have to calculate the average of those five numbers. Thus, we have 9 for the mean here ( ( 3 + 3 + 8 + 10 + 21 ) / 5 ).
For the median, we have to get the middle number of those numbers. As we have sorted the numbers above, we can immediately get our median, which is 8 (8 is the number in the middle position of those numbers).
The median is easy to get if we have an odd number of numbers like this. If we have an even number of numbers, we must average two numbers in the middle position to get our median.
For the mode, as 3 is the number most frequently shows up there (two times compared to one time for the other numbers), then the mode here is 3.
It might not be this easy to calculate the mean, median, and mode manually if we have many numbers. However, in excel, we have special functions that we can use to do the calculations easily and fast.
Want to know what are those functions? Let’s discuss the one we can use for the mean calculation first next.
How to Find Mean in Excel
As the mean is the average of our numbers, we can use the AVERAGE function to get our mean in excel.Here is the general writing method of the AVERAGE function in excel.
= AVERAGE ( number1 , number2 , … )
Just input all the numbers we want to get the mean from to AVERAGE and we are good to go!
Don’t forget to separate each input with a comma sign ( , ). We can input the numbers by typing them directly in AVERAGE or by using cells or cell ranges.
To better understand the practice of this AVERAGE function, here is its implementation example in excel.
As you can see, we just need to input all numbers from which we want to get our mean to AVERAGE. Do that and we will immediately get our mean calculation result!
How to Find Median in Excel
The way to calculate the median of a group of numbers in excel is also simple. We can use the excel MEDIAN function for the calculation and the way to use it is quite similar to AVERAGE.Here is the general writing form of the MEDIAN function in excel.
= MEDIAN ( number1 , number2 , … )
Not too much different with AVERAGE, isn’t it? We just need to input the numbers we want to get our median from to MEDIAN.
Here is its implementation example in excel.
Here we get 7.5 as the median of the numbers we have in the example. That is the average of the two middle numbers here (7 and 8) as the number of numbers we have is even.
How to Find Mode in Excel
Similar to mean and median, we can also use a special function to calculate mode in excel. The function is MODE and the way to use it in excel also mirrors AVERAGE and MEDIAN.Here is the general writing method of MODE in excel.
= MODE ( number1 , number2 , … )
Just input all the numbers you want to get your mode from to MODE and press enter. You will immediately get the mode of those numbers.
Here is the MODE function implementation example in excel.
We get 9 from MODE in the example because 9 is the number most frequently shows up there (3 times).
Exercise
After you have learned how to find mean, median, and mode in excel, let’s do an exercise. This is so you can understand the practice of the tutorial lessons better.Download the exercise file and answer the questions. Download the answer key file if you have done the exercise and want to check your answers.
Link to the exercise file:
Download here
Questions
Answer the question in the appropriate gray-colored cell according to the question number.- What is the mean of the respondents’ answer choice?
- What is the median of the respondents’ answer choice?
- What is the mode of the respondents’ answer choice?
Link to the answer key file:
Download here
Additional Note
- AVERAGE, MEDIAN, and MODE ignore text, empty cell, and logic value inputs
- If there is only one occurrence for all the numbers we input into MODE, it will produce a #N/A error (because that means there is no mode for the numbers)
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