Mean: what it means and how to read it
In the report: mean — The arithmetic mean: the sum divided by n.
How to read it
The typical value when the data are roughly symmetric. One extreme value pulls it strongly, so compare it with the median: if they differ a lot, the data are skewed.
In a report next to the standard deviation: M = 3.04, SD = 1.29.
In plain words
A teacher had five marks: 60, 70, 70, 80 and 90. She wanted one number for the usual mark, asked for the mean and got 74. Now she can say that 74 is the usual mark in this group, and that a student with 85 did better than usual. But one odd result pulls the mean a lot. If the last student had got 10 instead of 90, the mean would slide down to 58, while the median would stay at 70. When the two differ that much, the marks are lopsided.
How it is computed
x̄ = Σ x / nExample
The cell with mean is selected in each report; point at a label to see its note.
- — the sample data (50 rows) the examples use
- —
=STATS_ONE_SAMPLE(Data!A1:T51, "score", 5, 0.95,"two-sided") - —
=STATS_DESCRIPTIVE(Data!A1:T51, "mean,std,median","x1,x2") - — new syntax, 3 reports
=STATS_ANALYZE(Data!A1:T51, "PAIRED('before,after', 0.99, 'greater') ANOVA('x1,x2,x') DESCRIPTIVE('mean,std,n', 'x1,x2')")
Where you see it
STATS_ONE_SAMPLE— One-sample t-test against mu0.STATS_DESCRIPTIVE— Column-wise descriptive statistics with flexible metric selection and optional column filtering.STATS_ANALYZE— Runs several analyses on one range and returns one report.
Related values
- Median — The middle of the sorted values; with an even n, the mean of the two middle ones.
- Minimum — The smallest value.
- Maximum — The largest value.
- Range — max − min.
- Missing values — The number of empty answers and of cells that do not match the column type (text in a number column), inside the selected rows.
Get it in your sheet
One formula in a cell gives the whole report, Mean included. ALS Stats is a free add-on for Google Sheets™.
Install ALS Stats from Google Workspace Marketplace (opens in a new tab)