📊 Measure of Central Tendency

Last Updated: Jan 2026

Measure of Central Tendency is used to find a single value that represents the center or typical value of a dataset.

🗣 Hinglish Tip: Central tendency = poore data ka ek representative number

Data Can Be In Form of:

  • Population : All Data
  • Sample : A Part of Data

Used in:

  • Statistics
  • Data Analysis
  • Machine Learning
  • Decision making

There are three main measures:

  1. Mean
  2. Median
  3. Mode

Mean (Arithmetic Mean)

Mean is the average of all observations.

Formula

Population Mean

μ = (x₁ + x₂ + x₃ + ... + xₙ) / N

Where:

  • μ (mu) = population mean
  • xᵢ = each data value
  • N = total number of observations

Sample Mean

x̄ = (x₁ + x₂ + x₃ + ... + xₙ) / n

Where:

  • x̄ (x-bar) = sample mean
  • n = sample size

🗣 Hinglish Tip: Population ka mean = μ Sample ka mean = x̄

Mean Example

Data:

2, 4, 6, 8

Mean:

(2 + 4 + 6 + 8) / 4 = 5

Median

Median is the middle value when data is arranged in ascending or descending order.

Formula

Let n be number of observations.

  • If n is odd:
Median = value at position (n + 1) / 2
  • If n is even:
Median = average of values at positions n/2 and (n/2 + 1)

Median Examples

Odd number of values

Data: 3, 1, 5
Sorted: 1, 3, 5
Median = 3

Even number of values

Data: 2, 4, 6, 8
Median = (4 + 6) / 2 = 5

🗣 Hinglish Tip: Median = beech wali value, outliers ka effect kam

Mode

Mode is the value that appears most frequently in the dataset.

Formula

Mode = value with maximum frequency

Mode Example

Data: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4
Mode = 2

Notes:

  • One mode → Unimodal
  • Two modes → Bimodal
  • More than two → Multimodal
  • No repetition → No mode
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