Median Calculator

The median is the middle value in a dataset when the numbers are arranged in ascending or descending order. It represents the 50th percentile of the data, meaning half the values are above it and half are below it.

To calculate the median: 1) Sort the numbers from smallest to largest, 2) If there's an odd number of values, the median is the middle number, 3) If there's an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle numbers.

The mean (average) is the sum of all values divided by the count, while the median is the middle value. The median is less affected by extreme values (outliers) than the mean, making it more representative of typical values in skewed datasets.

Use median when your data has outliers or is skewed, when dealing with ordinal data, or when you want to find the typical middle value. Median is particularly useful in income analysis, test scores, and real estate prices.

Yes, when there's an even number of values, the median is calculated as the average of the two middle numbers, which can result in a decimal value even if all original data points are whole numbers.

Duplicate values are treated normally in median calculation. They're included in the sorted list and don't affect the calculation method - you still find the middle value(s) in the same way.

If your dataset contains only one number, that number is the median. There's no middle to find, so the single value represents both the minimum, maximum, and median.