How do you find the median in Excel?
In Excel, you can use the MEDIAN function to find the median.
In this tutorial, I will explain how to find the median using the MEDIAN function in Excel.
What is the median?
The median is the value in the middle when the data is arranged in ascending order.
Basically, like the average, it is used as an indicator to know the actual situation, but in some cases, the median is better than the average. For example, out of 100 people, if 90 have an annual income of $30,000, but 10 have an annual income of $10,000, the average income is about $28,000. This makes it difficult to get an accurate picture of the actual situation. Using the median, even if there is a mix of people with very high incomes, there will be little effect on the numbers, making it easier to get an accurate picture of the actual situation.
What is the MEDIAN function?
It is a function that returns the median value of a specified range. The syntax and the description of each argument are as follows:
=MEDIAN(number1,[number2]...)
- Number1: Specify the range for which you want to find the median
- Number2: You can omit it if you don't want to specify multiple ranges
If the aggregate data is an even number
The MEDIAN function arranges the data in ascending order to produce the median. However, if the number of data to aggregate is even, it outputs the average value of the two data in the middle.
How to find the median in Excel using the MEDIAN function
In this section, I will show you how to use the MEDIAN function to find the median.
To get the median, follow three steps below:
Step 1. Select a blank cell
Select a blank cell to enter the MEDIAN function.
Step 2. Enter the MEDIAN function
Enter "=MEDIAN(".
Step 3. Specify the range of cells
Specify the range of cells to be aggregated to produce the median value. If there are multiple cell ranges, specify multiple ranges by separating them with ",";
Enter ")" and press the ENTER key to determine the formula.