Question

How to find median

Answer 1

The median is the middle number. To calculate the median of any set of numbers, you need to write the numbers in order.

To find the median number:

• Put all the numbers in numerical order.
• If there is an odd number of results, the median is the middle number.
• If there is an even number of results, the median will be the mean of the two central numbers.

Finding the median with an odd number of results

Using the same example, find the median number of tracks on Kieran's CDs.

Kieran's results were:

9 13 9 11 9 13 11 9 10 8 11

• Put the numbers in numerical order:
• 8 9 9 9 9 10 11 11 11 13 13

• Find the middle number:
• 8 9 9 9 9 10 11 11 11 13 13

The middle number is 10, so the median is 10.

Finding the median with an even number of results

To find the median of the numbers: 5 11 12 4 8 21.

• Put the results in order:
• 4 5 8 11 12 21.

• Find the middle number or numbers:
• 4 5 8 11 12 21.

If there are two central numbers, we need to find their mean.

The median is therefore:

(8 + 11) ÷ 2 = 9.5