The median of a set of data is the value of the middle point, when they are arranged in order. For instance:
# hours worked | 14 | 25 | 19 | 53 | 61 | 42 | 29 |
Arranging these data in order gives: 14, 19, 25, 29, 42, 53, 61. We can easily see that the middle value is 29. If there are an even number of points, average the two middle values. Some characteristics of the median are:
- always exists for a set of data
- unique
- not strongly affected by extreme values
