Median

The median is a popular measure of central tendency. It is the 50th percentile of a distribution. To find the median of a number of values, first order them, then find the observation in the middle: the median of 5, 2, 7, 9, and 4 is 5. (Note that if there is an even number of values, one takes the average of the middle two: the median of 4, 6, 8, and 10 is 7.) The median is often more appropriate than the mean in skewed distributions and in situations with outliers.