More About this Sample Median Calculator

The sample median is one commonly used measure of central tendency, that is used to summarize the data into one "average" value, that provides a measure of location of a distribution.

In order to compute the median, there is not a median formula. What you need to do is to organize the sample data in ascending order, and if there is an even number \(n\) of elements in the sample, then you take the average of those in positions \(\frac{n}{2}\) and \(\frac{n]{2}+1\) to get the median. If, on the other hand, there is an odd number \(n\) of elements in the sample, then you take the median the value that is in the position \(\frac{n+1}{2}\).

The sample median is typically used as a representative measure of the center of the distribution when the sample mean is deemed to be inappropriate due to the fact that the data is skewed or it has outliers. In that case, the median will give a better representation of the center of the distribution.

Depending of the level of measurement, though, sometimes the appropriate measure of central tendency is the mode .

Please try our descriptive statistics calculator if you need to get a complete calculation of ALL of the most common descriptive statistics.