Median: what it means and how to read it
In the report: median — The middle of the sorted values; with an even n, the mean of the two middle ones.
How to read it
Half of the values are below it, half above. Unlike the mean it ignores extreme values — report it for skewed data such as income or reaction time.
In plain words
A small firm has five workers who earn 20, 22, 24, 26 and 200 thousand a year. A new worker wanted to know what a usual salary there looks like. The boss's pay is huge, so the mean comes out at 58.4 thousand, and nobody except the boss earns anything close to that. The median is the middle number after sorting, and here it is 24. Half of the workers earn less than that and half earn more. Now the new worker can see what a usual salary at this firm really is.
Example
The cell with median is selected in each report; point at a label to see its note.
- — the sample data (50 rows) the examples use
- —
=STATS_DESCRIPTIVE(Data!A1:T51, "mean,std,median","x1,x2")
Where you see it
STATS_DESCRIPTIVE— Column-wise descriptive statistics with flexible metric selection and optional column filtering.
Related values
- 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.
- Variance — The mean squared deviation from the mean: sample formula (n − 1); with pop = TRUE in Settings, population (n).
Get it in your sheet
One formula in a cell gives the whole report, Median included. ALS Stats is a free add-on for Google Sheets™.
Install ALS Stats from Google Workspace Marketplace (opens in a new tab)